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“I’ll carry on working for this club,” said Sheffield football legend Derek Dooley on his beloved Wednesday in the weeks after the amputation of his leg, “even if they have to stick me up as a corner flag.”

And he did. On this day in 1953 Dooley left hospital with his wife after an operation removed the gangrenous lower half of his right leg, originally broken in two places in a collision with Preston North End keeper George Thompson on Valentine’s Day Day a few weeks earlier.

It is understood chemicals from the white line-markings at Deepdale had infected the injury through a cut at the back of his calf.

A tragedy though it undoubtedly was, ending an increasingly promising career as one of the country’s most highly-rated forwards, it was an event that prompted a legacy on both sides of the Steel City’s footballing divide that went far, far beyond booting a ball into the back of a net.

On this day in 1953: Derek Dooley leaves hospital to start a lasting football legacy on both sides of the Steel City divide