From nearly losing a foot to walking out at Wembley

Many footballers class walking out at Wembley Stadium as the highlight of their career. Liam Gordon is grateful just to be walking at all.

The wing-back hopes to clinch what would be a rollercoaster promotion for Walsall when they face AFC Wimbledon in the League Two play-off final on Monday.

Three years ago it was a prospect he could barely have envisaged, sat in a hospital bed fearing his foot may have to be amputated after a freak injury in training.

Gordon collapsed, his leg buckling out of the blue, and it turned out he had suffered 'compartment syndrome' – a condition more associated with serious impact injuries.

"It usually happens in car crashes when your leg gets trapped and the muscle dies," the 26-year-old explained to BBC Sport. "Then it got infected…"

The infection was the worrying part – Gordon needed three surgeries in five days at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton to save the lower part of his leg.

"I had to have surgery from my knee to my ankle – they opened it up and took muscle out so I have a massive lump on my shin now," he added.

"There was a chance I wouldn't get feeling back in my leg, I had numbness down from my shin into my toes.

"I've still got nerve damage and numbness in my shin and big toe so there's not a lot of sensation there but that hasn't stopped me."

It did not. Amazingly, Gordon was back on the pitch within three months, with the help of then assistant coach, now head coach, Mat Sadler - a full-back in his playing career.

The Guyana international made his Walsall debut in September 2022 – his ordeal having come just weeks after he had joined the club after being released by Bolton Wanderers.

"The gaffer helped me, one-to-one in training, get back my sharpness and explosiveness, and I hope Monday, especially, I can repay him for all the help he's given me," Gordon said.

He still made 36 appearances that season – another 102 have followed as Gordon has been a virtual ever-present, establishing himself as one of League Two's most consistent performers.

"I always have reminders of it but I constantly give thanks," he added. "It could have been different – I might not have played football again.

"So I'm always thankful, I always have a smile on my face, and I understand I have this second chance to show people what I can do.

"It makes me enjoy football more because of what could have been. I try never to forget what happened as it keeps me humble and helps me through adversity."

And there has been plenty of on-field adversity for Gordon and his team-mates since January.

Walsall were 12 points clear at the top of the table at one stage, 15 points clear of fourth place – but a 13-game winless run cost them automatic promotion.

How it unfolded on the final day was even more agonising, as they were denied third spot by a 96th-minute Bradford City winner against Fleetwood Town.

"We would never have thought we'd be in the position we are now, at the start of January," Gordon said. "But that's what football throws at you.

"It's obviously disappointing not to go up automatically. But we're in a fantastic position a lot of people didn't think we would be in at the start of the season and this is still a great opportunity."

That was the message delivered by Gordon's fellow defender Taylor Allen at Walsall's end-of-season awards.

Allen's father Carl, a former Midlands boxing champion, died aged 54 last September.

Yet the 24-year-old used his father's words as inspiration to produce the best season of his career, scoring 11 goals and adding seven assists as a set-piece taking, forward-roaming inverted centre-back.

"My old man used to say to me all the time, 'You're better than what you are,' and I never used to believe him," Allen told his team-mates.

"Then he got ill, I got a fire in my belly, and I realised I hadn't got many chances left to show him what he was saying was right.

"When some things happen in life, sometimes you don't get another chance, and this is one of those seasons, boys, where we won't get another chance like this."

His emotional speech went viral and helped inspire Walsall to coast past Chesterfield over two semi-final legs.

"I was trying to pick the boys back up," Allen told BBC WM. "Football's not the be-all and end-all in life and I've realised that quite young. It was just about trying to transfer that to the boys."

Neither Gordon nor Allen have played at Wembley. Indeed, of the matchday 18 who featured against the Spireites, only two – veterans Jamille Matt and Albert Adomah – know that feeling.

Matt, 35, has won play-off finals there but lost them too, and asked if the cliche about it being the best way to go up but worst way to stay down is true, he said: "One million per cent.

"If I could choose at the start of the season a way to go up, if I was guaranteed, I'd choose that way [play-offs]. However, the stress levels up until that final whistle…"

Boss Sadler, meanwhile, is seeking Wembley redemption – he lost twice there, in the EFL Trophy final and League One play-off final, as Shrewsbury Town captain in 2018 and hopes it will be "third time lucky".

If it is, he will write his name in Walsall history as the first head coach to lead the club to a Wembley win – the Saddlers have only played there once in their 137-year history, losing the 2015 EFL Trophy final to Bristol City.

"I definitely want to replace those memories with a happier one – but I don't want to banish them because they were wonderful occasions," the 40-year-old said.

"I'm a big believer that all of those things shape you as a person – and I'm 100% certain what happened years ago will have no bearing on this game."