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| Boro loses £4.3m damages appeal | Boro loses £4.3m damages appeal |
| (11 minutes later) | |
| Middlesbrough Football Club has lost an appeal against a £4.3m damages award after a tackle which ended a promising footballer's career. | Middlesbrough Football Club has lost an appeal against a £4.3m damages award after a tackle which ended a promising footballer's career. |
| Manchester United youth player Ben Collett's leg was broken in a 2003 reserve game against Middlesbrough. | Manchester United youth player Ben Collett's leg was broken in a 2003 reserve game against Middlesbrough. |
| Boro player Gary Smith and his club admitted liability, but challenged the amount, saying the then 18-year-old had not yet proved his potential. | Boro player Gary Smith and his club admitted liability, but challenged the amount, saying the then 18-year-old had not yet proved his potential. |
| Their appeal was rejected at Manchester's Civil Courts of Justice. | Their appeal was rejected at Manchester's Civil Courts of Justice. |
| United manager Alex Ferguson and captain Gary Neville were among those who gave evidence at the 2008 hearing to decide the total amount of damages. | |
| Mr Ferguson described Mr Collett as "outstanding", and a series of other footballers and ex-managers suggested he had a future in the game. | |
| The court heard Collett could have earned more than £13,000 a week, and could have played until the age of 35. | |
| 'On cusp' | |
| Sitting at London's High Court, Mrs Justice Swift awarded the player £4.3m and said the final sum payable was unlikely to be less than £4.5m. | |
| But Middlesbrough FC argued that the former youth player was only "on the cusp" of becoming a first team member, and that his future was entirely dependent upon how he performed in the adult game. | |
| Sir Alex Ferguson described Collett's attitude as "magnificent" | |
| Dismissing the appeal, Lady Justice Smith and Lord Justice Carnwath agreed that not only was the compensation for a lost career not excessive, but there was a chance Collett could have achieved even more as a footballer. | |
| Mr Collett, now 23, was part of the club's FA Youth Cup-winning team in 2003. | |
| He was playing in his first reserve team game for the Old Trafford club that same year when the tackle broke his leg in two places. | |
| He has since enrolled at Leeds University, where he is studying English. | |
| Gary Smith was released by Middlesbrough and went on to play for MK Dons, before a free transfer to his current club, Brentford FC. |