TWTD has spoken to Jason Dozzell about the former Town star’s retirement from the game. The midfielder’s career at Colchester has been ended by a foot injury which has plagued him since the middle of last season.
Jason said: "It’s really my foot more than anything. I haven’t played for nine months and I had an operation on it. I’ve had three cortisone injections which is all you’re allowed in a year. I played a couple of reserve games and it didn’t feel right."
"I’m going to have a month or so away from football to sort out the medical side of things and work out what I’ll do from there."
"Obviously the happiest days of my career were at Town, my debut, which doesn’t seem like 18 years ago, and the promotion in 91/92, even the next season in the Premiership where we started so well but nearly went down. A season of two halves really."
"At Tottenham I played with some great players too, Klinsmann, Campbell, people like that."
Jason, 33, made 491 career League starts plus 46 as sub scoring 79 goals, as well as 104 (5 as sub) in cups scoring 23 goals. For Town Dozzell made 320 League starts, 20 as sub scoring 53 goals. In cups he played 75 times (+1 sub) scoring 20 goals. His last game was Colchester’s 6-1 defeat at Millwall on Boxing Day last season.
Dozzell still remains the youngest scorer for Town and in the top division as a whole. He played for Town from 1984-94 before going to Spurs. After leaving Tottenham in 1997 he briefly rejoined Town on a short-term deal. He controversially left the club after being reported out on the Town on a day when he had been substituted ill at Charlton, a claim he has always denied.
Former team-mate and TWTD columnist John Wark said of Dozzell: "It’s very sad as Jason isn’t really that old. I saw him last week at a Colchester game and he said he’d had a couple of reserve games and he wasn’t sure how it was going."
"I liked him a lot as a player, he had a lot of ability and he could and should have gone much higher in my opinion. He should have been an international, he had a lot more ability than a lot of players who got caps."
John talks more about Jason in his regular TWTD column, on the site tomorrow.
Fellow TWTD regular Gavin Barber coincidentally has an article in this month’s When Saturday Comes about Jason’s career.