Gabriel Batistuta turns 53 years old today and is a long way from his playing days – but the Argentina legend’s commitment to football has left him with a debilitating injury.
Batistuta enjoyed a brilliant 17-year playing career in which he netted 300 goals in 516 appearances before hanging up his boots in 2005.
The prolific striker made his name in Argentina with Newell’s Old Boys, River Plate and Boca Juniors before taking Serie A by storm with Fiorentina and Roma.
His record of 54 goals in 77 appearances is second only to Lionel Messi for Argentina.
Batistuta, known as Batigol, is one of the game’s greatest strikers, but his success did not come without sacrifice.
He retired 17 years ago, aged 36, due to chronic pain in his ankles, which became so bad that he asked a doctor to amputate his legs.
"I left football and overnight I couldn’t walk,” he told Argentina TV network TyC Sports in 2014.
“I wet the bed even though the bathroom was only three meters away. It was 4am and I knew if I stood my ankle would kill me.
"I went to see Doctor Avanzi (an orthopaedics specialist) and told him to cut off my legs. He looked at me and told me I was crazy.
"I couldn’t bear it any longer. I can’t put into words just how bad the pain was. I looked at Oscar Pistorius and said, “that’s my solution".
Thankfully for Batistuta, his doctor did not take his recommendation for him to become a double amputee like South African Paralympian Pistorius.
Instead, he had screws placed inside his ankles, which have helped him cope with the pain.
"My problem is that I have no cartilage or tendons,” he added.
“My 86 kilos are supported by bones alone. That's what generated the pain. I'm much better now than I was three years ago."
Despite the procedure, Batistuta, who finished his playing career with a two-year spell at Qatari club Al-Arabi, still has problems with walking.
"I lived and breathed football,” he said in an interview with FIFA in 2017.
“Now I have difficulty walking because of that, because I gave much more than I actually had to give."
Don't miss a thing with our football updates!
Want to be on the ball with all of the latest football news?
Well then sign up for the brilliant Daily Star football email newsletter!
From the latest transfer news to the agenda-setting stories, get it all in your email inbox - don't miss a thing.
How do you sign up?
It only takes a matter of seconds.
Simply type your email address into the box at the top of this article and hit 'subscribe'.
And that's it, job done. You'll receive an email with all of the top news stories every single morning.
You can find out more information on our email newsletter on this link here.
Batistuta is considered a club legend at Fiorentina, where he played between 1991 and 2000 and scored 207 goals and won the Serie B title and Coppa Italia.
He moved to Roma in 2001 for a fee of €36million, which remained the highest ever fee for a player over the age of 30 until Cristiano Ronaldo moved from Real Madrid to Juventus in 2018.
The Argentina international, who netted a penalty against England at the 1998 World Cup, won Serie A with Roma in 2000/01.
