History Main / GameBreakingInjury

** [[HistoryRepeats Exactly 33 years later]], in 2018, Redskins quarterback Alex Smith suffered a similar injury as they played the Houston Texans. Fortunately for Smith, after missing the 2019 season, he would come back in the 2020 season.

* This has directly caused a few teams to lose on ''Series/TheAmazingRace '', for example: brothers Marshall & Lance from Season 5, father & son Dave & Conner from 21, and friends Becca & Floyd from 29. It also indirectly causes a lot more teams to lose. Injuries run the gamut from concussions to heat strokes to broken bones to detached tendons.

** Not to make a point, but [[TheScrappy LeBron James]] and [[ThoseTwoGuys Dwyane Wade]] never got injured throughout the whole season. [[SarcasmMode Shockingly, they won the title at the end of the year.]]
* For [[UsefulNotes/{{Tennis}} tennis]] players, the physical demands of nearly a full year of constant play all too often leads to injury and them having to either withdraw from tournaments or do their best to play on bum knees or pulled hamstrings. In extreme cases, it can sideline a player's career for years, like with Juan Martín del Potro's wrist problems severely hindering his play for at least two years. In the worst cases, it can [[CareerEndingInjury derail a player's career outright]] like with Maureen Connolly (although her injury was non-tennis-related) and Mary Pierce.

** ''[[HistoryRepeats Exactly]]'' [[HistoryRepeats 33 years later, in 2018, Redskins quarterback Alex Smith suffered a similar injury as they played the Houston Texans]]. Fortunately for Smith, after missing the 2019 season, he would come back in the 2020 season.

* The popular FightingGame ''[[VideoGame/DefJamSeries Def Jam: Fight for New York]]'' managed to integrate this strategy into their gameplay mechanics. Characters who specialized in the ''submission'' fighting style were able to target their opponents' limbs, and their overall durability was represented by a separate life meter. If the opposing player used a weakened limb to punch or kick, then the damage would '''greatly''' be reduced. These mechanics are likewise carried over into the ''Kurohyō'' spin-offs of the ''[[VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}]]'' series, developed by the same company responsible for the original Def Jam and its Fight for New York sequel.

** Similarly, in ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'' Bond sustains two shots to his chest and shoulder. [[spoiler:He loses his iconic aim with the Walther PPK due to these injuries, and he never recovers them by the end of the movie. Also, M is hit with the thug's gunfire in a non-lethal area [[RealityEnsues but]] due to her age, she dies from the injury due to bleeding out.]]

* In ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'', a character can be crippled by wounds to different parts of the body. For example, broken arms can leave someone unable to wield weapons or shields, a severed motor nerve in the leg can leave someone unable to stand, eye injuries cause blindness, etc. Fortunately, multiple weapons and shields can be equipped to the same hand, and crutches can be used to regain standing ability, albeit at the cost of a speed penalty. That is, [[RealityEnsues if they can survive not only the blood loss from the injury but also whatever caused it in the first place]].

** Romanian star Larisa Iordache tore her Achilles tendon while warming up on floor exercise before the qualification round.

* ''Manga/AshitaNoJoe'' features several examples of this, but the most notable example is the punch-drunk syndrome that Joe develops in the final act of the series; despite suffering from visible loss of motor control and deteriorating senses, however, Joe tries to persevere through it during the championship fight with José Mendoza. [[TheHeroDies It fails tragically.]]

* In ''Manga/{{Eyeshield 21}}'', Hiruma was forced to play the second half of the [[spoiler: Deimon-Hakushuu game with a ''broken right arm'' after a fateful run-in with Hakushuu lineman Rikiya Gaou. Hiruma is right-handed and the ''quarterback'' of his team]] but because he's HIRUMA, [[spoiler: he still manages to pull the Devil Bats through for the win]].

* In ''Anime/TheIdolmaster'', Azusa gets the mumps a few days before a show.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' once had his [[Comicbook/{{Knightfall}} back broken by]] ComicBook/{{Bane}} putting him out of action for quite a while. In fact, the Game-Breaking Injury was Bane's entire plan to get Batman to the point where he could give him that broken back. He deliberately got all the other villains in Gotham causing chaos in a very short period of time, thereby ensuring that Batman wasn't running at anything close to 100%.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
* ''FanFic/DigimonChildrenOfTime'': As revealed in the first chapter of ''Children of the Present'', during his third year of high school, Tai suffered a leg injury during a soccer game that ruined his chances of going pro. By the time of the fic, his leg is still damaged, to the extent that the simple act of running is somewhat painful for him.

* ''FanFic/ATacticiansTestimony'': Early on, Katri suffers an injury to her right leg, which constantly reopens until Serra heals it. Nonetheless, Katri suffers from a limp from that point on. In "False Friends," the issue is partially resolved when she receives a leg brace.

* In ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'', the Great Grey Wolf Sif slowly limps in pain when he is near death. In the special edition, Sif's friend the Wolf knight Artorias' Abyssal corruption forces him to fight with only one arm. [[HandicappedBadass He still manages to put up one hell of a fight]].

* In ''Videogame/FinalFantasyVII'', this was how a BadassNormal infantry grunt like Cloud was able to kill a SuperSoldier like Sephiroth in Nibelheim. Sephiroth was distracted meeting his "mother" Jenova, giving Cloud the opportunity to impale him ''and'' Jenova from behind with the Buster Sword. Sephiroth still had the strength to impale Cloud in turn, but his injury left him too weak to resist when Cloud used his own sword as leverage to hurl Sephiroth into the chamber's wall. The exploding machinery in the wall did the rest of the job, and the dying Sephiroth fell into the Lifestream. It took Sephiroth years to recover from what Cloud did to him, and he had to create a new body using Jenova cells to do it -- his own original body was beyond saving.

** Hall of Famer Darrel Waltrip once [[{{ItMakesSenseInContext}} got in trouble when he drove two laps in a race with a shattered left femur]].

%% Hot, fresh edit from the Trope Repair Shop: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1388805737067936700

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[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* Both {{Wrestling/Droz}} and {{Wrestling/Hayabusa}} were paralysed in the ring due to botched moves. Hayabusa eventually regained the use of his lower body (albeit needing a cane to walk), but Droz only regained the use of his upper body and arms. Hayabusa passed away in 2016.

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Web Comics]]
* In ''WebComic/StandStillStaySilent'', Sigrun gets a troll bite on her arm in Chapter 9, which doesn't really get to heal properly between getting dragged into fights and her own neglect of it when she is not in a fight. In Chapter 12, she decides to stop wearing her sling and use the arm normally despite it still disturbing her. During the massive attack in Chapter 13, a troll going for the tank containing the group's two non-immune members escapes her because her arm acts up enough to make her lose her grip on her knife, which in turns distracts her long enough to get swatted by the tail of another troll.

** The climax has Spike taking a gunshot wound to the stomach right before his second fight with Vincent. For the most part, he doesn't feel it until his opponent grabs at it, which ''immediately'' cripples Spike, and makes the fight very one-sided, [[spoiler: especially once Spike starts getting affected by the nanovirus, with the implication that he's dying.]]

** Played straight, subverted[[spoiler:, {{Double Subver|sion}}ted, and Triple Subverted]] by Oishi, who [[spoiler:helped save a pregnant woman but injures himself in the process. Unable to play, he instead asks Momoshiro (who had just been kicked out of the regulars) to take his place]]. This injury [[spoiler:[[DoubleSubversion shows up again during the Nationals]] when Oishi challenges Ryoma for the final regular spot. He gets better by the time of the National Finals.]]

* ''Anime/MegaloBox:'' Aragaki is missing [[AnArmAndALeg both his legs]] and wears prosthetics. Boxing competitively has put too much stress on where the prosthetics meet the stumps, giving him only a few matches left, [[spoiler:and he's forced to throw in the towel after four rounds against Joe. When seen after the match, the rims of the prosthetics are covered in blood.]]

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' once had his [[Comicbook/{{Knightfall}} back broken by Bane]] putting him out of action for quite a while. In fact, the Game-Breaking Injury was Bane's entire plan to get Batman to the point where he could give him that broken back. He deliberately got all the other villains in Gotham causing chaos in a very short period of time, thereby ensuring that Batman wasn't running at anything close to 100%.

* In ''Fanfic/EarthsAlienHistory'', [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Samus]] ends up having her back lacerated by a [[EliteMook Kryptohusk's]] eye beams, which cause enough nerve damage that it permanently paralyzes her.

* Inverted in ''Film/{{Serenity}}''. Hero Mal Reynolds [[spoiler: was able to withstand a pressure point strike made by The Operative as he lacked the necessary patch of nerves in the vital area to be paralyzed by the attack.]]

* At the end of ''Literature/TheGunslinger'', Roland loses two fingers, and with it his iconic gunslinger quick-loading skill. He also fumbles several critical shots because of his injury. [[spoiler: the end of the seventh book suggests Roland can set things right somehow, eventually.]]

* One of the more horrific injuries was Sid Vicious' [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Eudy#Injury_and_retirement compound fractures]]. For the squeamish, it was a small jump off the 2nd turnbuckle to deliver a one-footed kick to Wrestling/ScottSteiner, but his left foot landed wrong, resulting in his tibia and fibula breaking bad enough that his boot was hanging at an obtuse angle. Which is made even worse when you read that he was [[ExecutiveMeddling talked into doing an aerial move by the management]], which felt he needed to broaden his arsenal, completely unaware of the fact that he had done very well for himself rarely ever leaving his feet.

* [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] by the Green Bay Packers in UsefulNotes/SuperBowl 45. Not only did they come into the game missing 8 of their 22 regular starters, but two of their top players on offense (Donald Driver) and defense (Charles Woodson) left the game in the second quarter leading to both men reportedly giving fiery speeches about overcoming adversity at halftime... [[{{Determinator}} it worked]].

* Right before the 1994 Olympics, figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed in the kneecap by Shane Stant, a man hired by Tonya Harding's ex-husband. Kerrigan would win the silver medal a month later. The gold medalist that year, Oksana Baiul, was also competing injured thanks to an accident at a warm-up event.
** This was actually intended to be Game-Breaking for the US Championships, which also served as a trial for the Olympic team, in order to keep Kerrigan off the team altogether, giving Harding a better chance at getting one of the two available spots. The injury actually did keep her out of the trials, but the committee ended up deciding, based on her past performance, to give her a spot anyway.
* In professional hockey, teams worry that opposing players will deliberately target an injured player's weak spots and so they give injury information in the vaguest possible terms. An "Upper Body Injury" can be anything from a broken arm to a sinus infection to a concussion. During the 2020 playoffs, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, even those descriptions were done away with in favor of describing all players who cannot play at the moment only as "unfit to participate", inadvertently invoking the NothingIsScarier trope.
** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in the case of Bobby Baun of the Toronto Maple Leafs. In game six of the Stanley Cup Finals, Baun, who broke his ankle earlier in the game, skated on for the overtime and scored the game-winning goal. This would propel the Leafs into a game 7 Stanley Cup victory over their opponents (Baun also played in that game as well).

* Jack Youngblood of the Los Angeles Rams actually played every single play on defense during Super Bowl XIV against the all-powerful Pittsburgh Steelers with a taped-up broken leg. Considering that it was the Rams' first title game appearance in years, it was probably justifiable, as there is was no way he was going to miss the most important game of his life. Not only that, he played in the Pro Bowl that year too.
* Bill Buckner was actually off the field for much of the sixth game of the 1986 world series, because of his severely injured knees. Manager John [=McNamara=] reportedly sent him out because he thought Buckner deserved to be on the field for the Sox series win... [[NeverLiveItDown/{{Sports}} Whoops]].

* During the 2004 Olympics, Russian judoka Dmitri Nossov lost the semifinal, cutting his eyebrow muscle and seriously injuring his left arm. He still won a bronze medal ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r--bPIJYwXg using just the remaining arm]]''.

** ''[[HistoryRepeats Exactly]]'' [[HistoryRepeats 33 years later, in 2018, Redskins quarterback Alex Smith suffered a similar injury as they played the Houston Texans]].

TheHero is about to get into a fight with the BigBad, TheDragon or one of the Big Bad's [[{{Mooks}} lackeys]]. The fight is biased in The Hero's favor and the viewer sees one of the most [[CurbStompBattle one-sided fights]] the series has to offer. Pretty soon the villain is already down on one knee and The Hero is ready to use their finishing strike. The Hero prepares the attack and it looks like victory is ensured.

** Zoro had another Game Breaking Injury when he fought Hatchan. After being slashed in the chest by Hawk-Eeyes Mihawk, Zoro had a gaping gash on his chest as well as an incredibly high fever. Once again he was able to win in the end.

** Another moment where Sanji suffered a Game Breaking Injury was during the ''Drum Island Arc''. After being buried by an avalanche he later helps defend the doctor who saved his life. He's unable to fight due because the [[DrJerk old bitch]] hit him in the back to temporarily paralyze him and keep him from aggravating the wound.

** Zoro recently suffered a major Game Breaking Injury from [[BearsAreBadNews Bartholomew Kuma]], and in each of the two or three major encounters since the injuries have slowed him down considerably.

** In Date's rematch with Ricardo Martinez, [[spoiler: Date's special MegatonPunch, the Heartbreak Shot, gets thrown twice- the first time Ricardo blocks it by shear luck with his elbow, shattering Date's right hand. The second time he throws it, his timing and the setup are absolutely perfect and it's a straight shot to the knock-out, except the damage sustained from the first shot robs him of the power he needs to clinch it]].
** Many of the examples given so far are actually TruthInTelevision. It is very common for fighters to specifically attack a cut created earlier or to keep attacking a swollen eye. Legends like Roberto Duran were notoriously dirty in their fights, but were expert at hiding it from the referee. Arturo Gatti once broke his hand in the middle of a fight and kept using it. Matter of fact, much of what's ever happened in boxing is sometimes too crazy to think it might have actually happened.

* ''Anime/CowboyBebop: TheMovie'' early on has Spike fighting the BigBad Vincent in a train. Spike is an impeccably flawless fighter, but gets beaten quite badly by Vincent's equally skilled but much stronger style. Spike takes several brutal blows but continues fighting, until Vincent hits him with a particularly bloody blow, at which point the fight is over: it continues for another minute or so, but it's a CurbStompBattle.
** The climax has Spike taking a gunshot wound to the stomach right before his second fight with Vincent. For the most part he doesn't feel it until his opponent grabs at it, which ''immediately'' cripples Spike, and makes the fight very one-sided, [[spoiler: especially once Spike starts getting affected by the nanovirus, with the implication that he's dying.]]

** Kirihara of Rikkaidai has been known to abuse his opponents by hitting them with high speed tennis shots during his matches. Often he likes to hit their kneecaps.

* In ''Manga/{{Eyeshield 21}}'', Hiruma was forced to play the second half of the [[spoiler: Deimon-Hakushuu game with a ''broken right arm'' after a fateful run-in with Hakushuu lineman Rikiya Gaou. Hiruma, is right handed and the ''quarterback'' of his team,]] but because he's HIRUMA,[[spoiler: he still manages to pull the Devil Bats through for the win]].

* In ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', Akane injures her hand while punching down a wall in exasperation. Dr. Tofu fixes it, but warns her not to punch ANYTHING for a while. As she walks back home, she punches the air... and out of nowhere comes the [[GiantMook Dojo Destroyer]], stepping into the path of her fist, causing her to injure it again. Worse, she was just getting ready to defend the Tendo Dojo from ''that same guy'' later in the day. To add insult to injury, the [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep Dojo Destroyer]] fights exclusively by wielding signs from conquered dojos as weapons, something that an uninjured Akane would have had [[CurbStompBattle very little trouble with.]]

* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', Edward fights against #66, an executed convict with his soul bound to a suit of armour, with the binding rune in his helmet. Edward seemed to have won by knocking it off, but was stabbed in the side when it turns out ''two'' souls were in the armour (one controlling the head, one controlling the body). Not only was Edward exhausted, but now he was heavily losing blood, and only barely managed to win.

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': According to Jugo, Sasuke had trouble facing Killer Bee because the wounds he sustained fighting [[spoiler:Itachi]] hadn't properly healed. [[spoiler: Later revealed by Bee's various transformations, Sasuke had no chance either way since Killer Bee was just on too high a level for him.]] Earlier on, the curse mark serves as a Game-Breaking Injury, popping up whenever Sasuke uses too much chakra, and causing him to double over in pain.
** Also, Gaara delivered a major one to Rock Lee, not only shattering his left arm and leg, but ''pieces of the bones were imbedded in his spinal column.'' If not for Tsunade, he would have lost his ninja career, his life's dream, and probably his spirit.

** [[spoiler: Might Guy]] suffers one after showing what happens when you [[spoiler: open all eight gates]]. Naruto's healing abilities save him from ''disintegrating alive'' [[HeroicRROD like the normal consequence for that action entails]], but in the epilogue it's shown that even ten-fifteen years in the future he's still wheelchair-bound... and it hasn't slowed him down a bit.

** Gennosuke has the best [[HypnoticEyes ability]] of them all -- with his gaze he can command his enemies to kill themselves or each other. He gets to demonstrate it early on against some {{mooks}} but soon after has his eyes blinded and sealed shut for 7 days, making him unable to use it and rendering him mostly useless for the rest of the series. Liberal use of his ability would have made it too easy for his clan to win the battle.

** All Might suffered from an absolutely brutal one of these five years before the start of the series, that ruined most of his internal organs and scrambled his power usage. Multiple surgeries later, he can only use his powers for a few hours a day and needs to stay off the public eye the rest of the time, as his depowered aspect is... [[NothingButSkinAndBones disheartening]], to say the least.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' once had his [[Comicbook/{{Knightfall}} back broken by Bane]] putting him out of action for quite a while. In fact, the Game Breaking Injury was Bane's entire plan to get Batman to the point where he could give him that broken back. He deliberately got all the other villains in Gotham causing chaos in a very short period of time, thereby ensuring that Batman wasn't running at anything close to 100%.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersTheMovie'', during Optimus Prime and Megatron's final battle, Megatron is aware he is losing the fight and starts tossing rocks at Optimus. He then throws a shard of metal from a ship at him, cutting his side open, taking advantage of the injury and making it worse by slicing open the wound with an energon sword. Later on while holding Hot Rod hostage, he shoots him in the same wound and also in the chest and face fatally wounding him, but just before he passes out he manages to knock Megatron off a cliff, severely wounding him. The damage inflicted on Megatron in the battle is so severe that he cannot defend himself from Starscream's treachery the way he usually does when Starscream tosses him into space on the way back to Cybertron.

* In ''Film/RumbleInTheBronx'', Jackie broke his ankle jumping onto the hovercraft, and continued filming with the broken ankle.

* This is OlderThanPrint. In Myth/KingArthur legends, this is how Sir Gawain of Orkney dies. He had an old head wound that was nearly fatally reopened in a fight with Sir Lancelot. Lancelot refused to fight him while he was wounded and sent him to his tent to recover. Ironically, he was nearly healed when news that Mordred had taken over Camelot came. He insisted on going to war with his king, but had his head wound reopened AGAIN in a small skirmish with a bunch of untrained peasants on his way to a ship. He died minutes after the fight was over.

* In ''Literature/{{Changes}}'', there seems to be one when [[spoiler:Harry breaks his back]], but the he gets PowerAtAPrice from [[spoiler:Queen Mab]] and is healed, among other things. We see later in ''Literature/GhostStory'' that the choice wasn't exactly fair since [[spoiler:a fallen angel]] interfered.

* ''Literature/LegacyOfTheDragokin'': Rana is badly injuried at the start and then overuse of her electric powers sends her into a coma. Because of that she is missing from many battles and the narration often notes that she is not at full strength. This was necessary because a substantial degree of [[Literature/TrappedOnDraconica the previous book's plot]] was Daniar recruiting her because of her tremendous power.
* At the end of ''Literature/TheGunslinger'', Roland loses two fingers, and with it his iconic gunslinger quickloading skill. He also fumbles several critical shots because of his injury. [[spoiler: the end of the seventh book suggests Roland can set things right somehow, eventually.]]

[[folder: Live Action Television]]
* This has directly caused a few teams to lose on ''Series/TheAmazingRace '', for example: brothers Marshall & Lance from Season 5, father & son Dave & Conner from 21, and friends Becca & Floyd from 29. It’s also indirectly cause a lot more teams to lose. Injuries run the gamut from concussions to heat strokes to broken bones to detached tendons.

* In an episode of ''Series/{{NCIS}}'', Gibbs calls upon his mentor Mike Franks to help with a case. While at Gibbs' house, Mike hears a noise, goes to investigate, and ends up [[spoiler: confronting the Port-to-Port Killer. Mike manages to shoot him in the leg, but dies in the street after being stabbed with a scalpel. Gibbs later discovers that Franks was dying of lung cancer, and had only weeks to live]]. This is actually a ''double'' Game-Breaking Injury, since Franks [[spoiler: lost his trigger finger in a gunfight]] not long before this, which is why [[spoiler: the Port-to-Port Killer survived [[NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight bringing a knife to a gunfight]]]].

** Jack suffers some nasty injuries in the final few hours of Day 8, including a nasty stab wound in the gut that has to get weakly stitched back together and a gunshot wound in the shoulder. In the finale, he gets taken hostage by some of Charles Logan's men and is about to be executed. Jack tries fighting them off, but by this point all his injuries catch up to him and he's helpless to do anything. Again, a BigDamnHeroes moment from his friends is the only thing that saves him from a bullet to the brain.

[[folder: Professional Wrestling ]]

* Some matches have a high tendency to cause this, especially the scaffold match. Just competing in one of these matches contributed to Wrestling/MickFoley's semi retirement at age 34.

** In the same game, our hidden-blade-equipped player characters from the period get into a fight. One receives a stab wound through his wrist and ends up being forced into fighting with just a sword. He's still formidable, but when both combatants are stunned by a nearby cannon blast and end up grappling with each other, he is forced to use both hands to try and strangle his opponent, and is thus vulnerable to a throat stab. [[spoiler: And that's how Connor killed his father Haytham.]]

* In ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'', a character can be crippled by wounds to different parts of the body. For example, broken arms can leave someone unable to wield weapons or shields, a severed motor nerve in the leg can leave someone unable to stand, eye injuries cause blindness, etc. Fortunately, multiple weapons and shields can be equipped to the same hand, and crutches can be used to regain standing ability, albeit at the cost of a speed penalty. That is, [[RealityEnsues if they can survive not only the blood loss from the injury, but also whatever caused it in the first place]].

* In ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' Archer takes a blow from Saber in the Fate route, significantly weakening him for the rest of the story. This prevents him from carrying out his original plan but isn't enough to stop him taking several of Berserker's lives during his last stand.

* Towards the end of ''VideoGame/{{Outlast}}: Whistleblower'', Waylon breaks his leg, leaving him unable to run and slowing his pace down significantly. This turns his encounter with Gluskin into a game of cat and mouse, when normally it would be trivial for Waylon to just run away.

* ''VideoGame/AnotherWorld'' Does this to you in various forms throughout the game. You end up trapped in a cage early in the game, your gun runs out of power shortly after you find it and during the final moments of the game, you've been injuried so badly you can only crawl on the floor.

** In ''VideoGame/Uncharted2AmongThieves'', Nate wakes up at the start of the game InMediasRes with a bad gunshot wound that causes him to significantly struggle with climbing and, once you return to this point in the story and clear a fight, unable to do much more than walk after Nate's adrenaline wears off. Punching in the next Chapter will cause him to recoil in pain, he can't run, and climbing it out of the question. Nate's back to normal by the time he starts the next level, though. As for how he got it, he was shot in the flank by [[spoiler: Harry Flynn]] shortly before Nate crashes the train he started the game in.
** Downplayed in ''VideoGame/Uncharted3DrakesDeception'', as Nate gradually succumbs to dehydration and exhaustion in the Rub Al' Khali desert Chapter rather than an outright injury. He starts chipper, but quickly his gait becomes clumsy and he leans on his knees when stopped. At a certain point he's reduced to crawling, and stopping will have him collapse onto the ground.

* The v1.13 GameMod for ''VideoGame/JaggedAlliance2'' added mechanics for simulating this. A hit to [[SubsystemDamage an arm or leg]] causes a merc or enemy to suffer a penalty to their Dexterity and movement speed respectively, and if they take a hit to the head that's ''not'' a OneHitKill (more common than you might think, because even the absolute bottom-tier helmets you start off with offer enough damage reduction that a non-CriticalHit from an equally bottom-tier firearm isn't a guaranteed kill) will lose Wisdom points. These stat losses are permanent unless you have a very skilled medic and expend a ''lot'' of medical supplies.

* In ''WebComic/StandStillStaySilent'', Sigrun gets a troll bite on her arm in Chapter 9, which doesn't really get to heal properly between getting dragged into fights and her own neglect of it when she is not in a fight. In Chapter 12, she decides to stop wearing her sling and use the arm normally desite it still disturbing her. During the massive attack in Chapter 13, a troll going for the tank containing the group's two non-immune members escapes her because her arm acts up enough to make her lose her grip on her knife, which in turns distracts her long enough to get swatted by the tail of another troll.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]
* The opening scene of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' has this happen to Bruce Wayne, when his bad heart (and his deteriorating physical state in general, from [[DentedIron all the injuries he'd sustained over his years as Batman]]) finally catches up to him during a fight with some kidnappers and [[BatmanGrabsAGun he is forced to use a gun]] to make the last attacker step down.[[note]]It should be noted that it's the fact that he caught himself actually resorting to drawing a firearm that convinces him to hang up his cowl, rather than his evident health problems as would be normal for this trope.[[/note]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' Megatron spends the entire first season in traction after Starscream planted a bomb on him in the first episode and he burned up on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. Megatron's efforts to fix his Game Breaking Injury make up a good chunk of the first season's plot, and they do pay off in the end. In the series finale Starscream [[spoiler:posthumously]] screws over Megatron ''again'' [[spoiler:with bombs he planted in the Omega Supreme clones]]. Megatron survives, but he is in such poor condition that Optimus curbstomps him.

* [[spoiler: Devin and Carrie]] of ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaPresentsTheRidonculousRace'' have to drop after the race after [[spoiler: Devin]] is accidentally pushed over a cliff and is put in a full body cast.

[[folder: Real Life ]]
* Y.A. Tittle had just taken a brutal tackle by John Baker of the Pittsburgh Steelers which gave him a concussion and a cracked sternum during his final season of play. Tittle went on to play the rest of the season, but admitted years later the injury was enough to tell him there were no comebacks in the future.

* During the 1970 NBA finals Willis Reed played in game 7 with a torn hamstring, an injury which would plague him for years and lead to an early end to his career.

** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in the case of Bobby Baun of the Toronto Maple Leafs. In game six of the Stanley Cup Finals, Baun, who broke his ankle earlier in the game, skated on for the overtime and scored the game winning goal. This would propel the Leafs into a game 7 Stanley Cup victory over their opponents (Baun also played in that game as well).

* Jack Youngblood of the Los Angeles Rams actually played every single play on defense during Super Bowl XIV against the all-powerful Pittsburgh Steelers with a taped up broken leg. Considering that it was the Rams' first title game appearance in years, it was probably justifiable, as there is was no way he was going to miss the most important game of his life. Not only that, he played in the Pro Bowl that year too.

* [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball Football]] player Franz Beckenbauer played The "Game of the Century" against Italy in the 1970 [[UsefulNotes/TheWorldCup World Cup]] semi-finals with his arm in a sling, because Germany had already used their two player substitutions.

** In 2015, Kyle Busch missed several races after suffering a broken leg in the Xfinity Series opener at Daytona. NASCAR ruled that even if he won a race when he returned, he'd have to compete in a certain number of races and accumulate a certain number of points before qualifying for the Chase. Busch came back and won several races to qualify with ease despite the restrictions. He then managed to survive all the way to Homestead on points alone (no small feat), and ended up winning the Championship by 3 seconds over defending champion Kevin Harvick.

* The 2012 NBA season, coming right out of a lockout, is now notorious for various injuries ultimately benching players from ''any'' team. More often than not, they were forced to sit out on the rest of a playoff series, or missed the playoffs entirely.

* Perhaps one of the most infamous of these in the NFL is the injury that Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann had during a game in 1985, when New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor accidentally broke Theismann's leg during a tackle. After realizing what happened, Taylor immediately called for help. Afterwards, Theisman was forced to retire. Since then, both offensive tackle positions[[note]]The left tackle for a right-handed quarterback, and the right tackle for a left-handed quarterback.[[/note]] were redefined to cover the quarterback's [[Film/TheBlindSide blind side]][[note]]Taylor had "blindsided" Theismann when it happened.[[/note]] (as the movie's OpeningNarration explains) Additionally, while Theismann never blamed Taylor for the injury, Taylor still feels terrible about it to this day.

* In the 2018 Indycar series season, Robert Wickens was launched into the catchfence in a two car crash, causing him to break his arm, both ankles, and a vertebra in his back, and taking him out of the rest of the season. Later updates revealed that he is currently paraplegic, due to a bruise on his spinal cord, but he hopes to be walking again within two years, and his team has said that the car is his if he recovers sufficiently, making it an open question of whether it's this or a CareerEndingInjury.

* In ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'', Film/JamesBond suffers an injury to his shoulder after falling from a hot air balloon. The BigBad ([[spoiler:well, TheDragon]]) later uses the injury to incapacitate him (which gives him a clue to who TheMole is).
* In ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'' Bond sustains two shots to his chest and shoulder. [[spoiler:He loses his iconic aim with the Walther PPK due to these injuries, and he never recovers them by the end of the movie. Also M is hit with the thug's gunfire in a non-lethal area [[RealityEnsues but]] due to her age, she dies from the injury due to bleeding out.]]

* In professional hockey, teams worry that opposing players will deliberately target an injured player's weak spots and so they give injury information in the vaguest possible terms. An "Upper Body Injury" can be anything from a broken arm to a sinus infection to a concussion.

* Also in gymnastics, at the 1996 Olympics, American gymnast Kerri Strug famously sprained her ankle on her first vault attempt. The reason, of course, that the event became famous is that she nonetheless returned to the podium to make a second attempt in order to clinch the gold medal for the team. She successfully landed the vault, but [[CareerEndingInjury would never compete in gymnastics again]].

* One of the trailers for ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}: Age of Reckoning'' features a rather one-sided battle between a Chaos warrior and a Sigmarite Warrior-Priest. lhe Latter is on his knees, having taken a nasty blow to the side, when suddenly his eyes and weapon come alive with a holy fire. The Chaos warrior just cocks his head and knees him in the injured side.

** This also ultimately [[spoiler: ends Kenshin career as a swordsman at the end of the series. As Kenshin fragile build can't fully withstand the pressures of his sword style which Megumi notes over time he won't be able to do anything major like he did in the past. Though Kenshin's fine with this as he wishes to settle down with Karou anyway]].

* Y.A. Tittle, the trope illustrator, had just taken a brutal tackle by John Baker of the Pittsburgh Steelers which gave him a concussion and a cracked sternum during his final season of play. Tittle went on to play the rest of the season, but admitted years later the injury was enough to tell him there were no comebacks in the future.

* The opening scene of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' has this happen to Bruce Wayne, when his bad heart (and his deteriorating physical state in general, from all the injuries he'd sustained over his years as Batman) finally catches up to him during a fight with some kidnappers and [[BatmanGrabsAGun he is forced to use a gun]] to make the last attacker step down.[[note]]It should be noted that it's the fact that he caught himself actually resorting to drawing a firearm that convinces him to hang up his cowl, rather than his evident health problems as would be normal for this trope.[[/note]]

* ''Anime/CowboyBebop: TheMovie'' has Spike taking a gunshot wound to the stomach right before his fight with Vincent in the climax fight. For the most part he doesn't feel it until his opponent grabs at it, at which point Spike ''immediately'' starts losing.