History Main / CareerEndingInjury

* Such real-life injuries happen often in ProfessionalWrestling: Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin (who continued wrestling for several years after having his neck broken, but the injury limited his moveset, and he was forced to retire or risk (at best) permanent paralysis by the end of his run in 2003), Wrestling/TedDiBiase, Hayabusa, and Wrestling/YoshihiroTakayama are just some, and then there are the injuries that weren't only career-ending, but [[FatalMethodActing life-ending]].

* Rainbow Dash in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Asylum}}'' wanted to be a Wonderbolt, like in the main canon, however, a childhood brain injury left her a weak flier. Her career ended before it even began.

** In the first ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'' movie, Lightning [=McQueen=] discovers that Doc Hudson was actually the Fabulous Hudson Hornet, a legendary racecar. Doc ultimately explains that the only reason he "quit" racing was that he suffered a major crash during a race. By the time he could race again, the racing industry merely brushed him off without a second thought.

** Subverted by Music/JudasPriest guitarist Glenn Tipton. In February 2018, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, leading the band to hire Andy Sneap to take his place in live shows.

* This happens to anyone in later ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' games that "dies" but is too critical to the plot to be removed (and doesn't cause a Game Over when defeated, as happens to the main characters.) Everyone else is subject to {{Permadeath}}.

* This trope is used in ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' The Bronze Kneecap explains that tripping over the Crimson Chin's titular facial feature was what caused him to injure his knee and ended his career. He subsequently smelts all of his bronze trophies and makes them into his villain costume. Timmy views this as a major overreaction and the Bronze Kneecap responds that the Crimson Chin never even said he was sorry.

*** Kirby Puckett, Hall of Fame center fielder for the Minnesota Twins, had his playing career end after being hit in the face by a pitch from Dennis Martínez and subsequently developing glaucoma. He never played again.

* In ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'', losing a limb in battle is pretty much the end of an Investigator's career. It's mentioned that the veterans' old commander, Iba, was forced to retire after losing his arm in battle with the Owl. A decade later, [[spoiler:Kuroiwa]] suffers the same fate. However, the sequel reveals that this was averted by [[spoiler:Juuzou]] -- though he lost his right leg in the final battle, he's still going [[HandicappedBadass strong]] thanks to a fancy [[ArtificialLimbs prosthetic]] leg.

* In ''Film/ForrestGump'', Lieutenant Dan has to leave the army after losing his legs in Vietnam. He had an ancestor die in "every single American war" and believed the same was supposed to happen to him, so being left alive but unable to fight turns him into an alcoholic mess for a long time. [[spoiler:He gets better by the end of the movie, complete with prostethic legs.]]

* ''Film/Halo4ForwardUntoDawn''. Cadet Thomas Lasky is something of a reluctant soldier, and gets a chance to leave the Academy without losing face when it turns out he's allergic to an important fluid needed for the cryosleep process. He's given a medical discharge paper and is told to think over whether he wants to sign it. That night the Covenant attacks. Thirty years later he's an officer on the UNSC ''Infinity'', and his body is shown to be CoveredInScars from the allergic reaction before he zips up his uniform and climbs into a cryosleep tube.

* ''Literature/StarTrekTheCaptainsOath:'' Rhen, Kirk's first officer on the ''Sacagawea'', badly damages her leg shoving an alien out of the way of a falling rock. Even with 23rd century tech, she still requires a cane to walk afterwards, though some of it is for show she admits she'll never be quite at the top of her game ever again, and resigns from Starfleet.

** Briarlight, whose spine was broken when a tree fell on her just before she was about to receive her warrior name. Though she survived, her paralyzed hindlegs made her unable to fight or even move around much, so she just helped out around the camp, especially in the medicine cat's den.

* ''Series/TedLasso'' has the "old athlete" variation. AFC Richmond captain Roy Kent has had a great career, but he's now old and slow, and everyone knows his days of pro soccer are coming to an end. In the first season finale he busts his knee during a tackle and has to limp off the field, with the commentators noting that it's an injury he probably won't recover from. They're right, as he retires in between seasons.

** This trope is played with for yet another episode. In this one, Timmy cannot sing his part for Mr. Bickles' play because he needs his tonsils taken out. That doesn't stop him from trying to sing anyway. Unfortunately, Mr. Bickles doesn't take it well when Timmy fails due to his aching throat, causing him to drop to his knees and whine about his so-called dream being ruined. This time someone else's career is "ended" by someone else's illness.

** Dennis Anderson, the original creator and driver of UsefulNotes/MonsterJam's Grave Digger, would end up getting injured and hospitalized after attempting and failing to do a backflip with the truck during a show in Tampa, Florida in early 2017. While he thankfully didn't get paralyzed from the injuries and was able to recover, the incident would cause him to retire from monster truck driving after a 35 year career.

** Bill [=McLaren=] was on the verge of playing his first game for Scotland's national rugby union team when he contracted a near-fatal case of TB and was forced to give up playing. He went on to become a renowned commentator, earning him the nickname of "the voice of rugby".

** Creator/TomKane is a well-known name among the Western animation fans, famous for his near pitch-perfect impersonations of Creator/IanMcKellen as [[Franchise/TheLordOfTheRings Gandalf]] and [[WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen2009 Magneto]], not to mention his roles as Yoda in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' and Professor Utonium and Him in ''Franchise/ThePowerpuffGirls''. However, his career was drastically cut short after he had a stroke affecting his speech functions. While Kane recovered, in September 2021 his daughter posted on his Facebook page that he chose to retire early due to long-term apraxia (difficulty in being able to smoothly transition syllables) as a result of the stroke.

** In 1991 while shooting ''Film/DocHollywood'', Creator/MichaelJFox started showing symptoms of early-onset Parkinson's disease when he was just 29 years old, and would be properly diagnosed with the illness soon after. By 1998, the year he went public with his diagnosis, the disease had left him debilitated and stalled his career, forcing him to leave his starring role on ''Series/SpinCity'', with most of his roles since being either in voice acting (most notably the voices of Film/StuartLittle and Milo Thatch in ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire) or characters with [[WrittenInInfirmity Written-In Infirmities]].

*** Co-founder Malcolm Young was forced to retire when he was diagnosed with early-onset dementia. He died sometime later.

** Conductor Seiji Ozawa had originally trained to be a concert pianist, but moved to conducting after injuring two of his fingers in a rugby match.

** Former White House Press Secretary James Brady, who served under Ronald Reagan, had his career abruptly ended at the age of 40 when he was shot in the head during the attempted assassination of Reagan on March 30, 1981. The injuries left him caused slurred speech, memory problems, and permanent paralysis from the waist down for the rest of his life until his death in 2014. Despite this, he remained in office until Reagan's term ended, with his replacements, Larry Speakes and Marlin Fitzwater both serving as "Acting White House Press Secretary" during Reagan's term, meaning that his career didn't officially end until January 20, 1989, when he was 48.
* Defied by [[https://www.chelsiehill.com/ Chelsie Hill]], an aspiring dancer who became a paraplegic after a car accident during her senior year in high school. Rather than giving up on dance, she simply moved to promoting adaptive dancing for people in wheelchairs and started an organization called the Rollettes to inspire other women who use wheelchairs to do the same.

** Most of Creator/BruceWillis' infamous MoneyDearBoy roles from the mid-2010s onward were revealed upon his retirement in 2022 to be the result of a diagnosis of aphasia, a cognitive disorder that makes it difficult to comprehend written or spoken words. Knowing that he wouldn't be able to keep working for much longer as his condition got worse, especially with him having fallen off the A-list since his '90s heyday, he began taking well-paying AdvertisedExtra roles in DirectToVideo films in order to ensure that he'd be able to comfortably retire.
** In 1991 while shooting ''Film/DocHollywood'', Creator/MichaelJFox started showing symptoms of early-onset Parkinson's disease when he was just 29 years old, and would be properly diagnosed with the illness soon after. By 1998, the year he went public with his diagnosis, the disease had left him debilitated and stalled his career, with most of his roles since being either in voice acting (most notably the voice of Film/StuartLittle) or characters with [[WrittenInInfirmity Written-In Infirmities]].

** COnductor Seiji Ozawa had originally trained to be a concert pianist, but moved to conducting after injuring two of his fingers in a rugby match.

** Soloist Kathryn Morgan of the New York City Ballet was five years into a ''very'' promising career (she was on the fast track to becoming a principal ballerina with the company) when she was hit by Hashimoto's thyroiditis, which unfortunately put an end to her time with the company. She has since made a name for herself as a Website/YouTube dance guru, and after seven years away, subverted the trope when she joined the incredibly well-respected Miami City Ballet as a soloist in 2019.

** Creator/TomKane is a well-known name among the Western animation fans, famous for his near pitch-perfect impersonations of Creator/IanMcKellen as [[Franchise/TheLordOfTheRings Gandalf]] and [[WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen2009 Magneto]], not to mention his roles as Yoda in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' and HIM in ''Franchise/ThePowerpuffGirls''. However, his career was drastically cut short after Kane had a stroke affecting his speech functions. While he recovered, in September 2021 his daughter posted on his Facebook page that he chose to retire early due to long-term apraxia (difficulty in being able to smoothly transition syllables) as a result of the stroke.

* In ''Manga/CaptainTsubasa'', this is the reason why Roberto Hongo left soccer. During one of his best matches, he was accidentally elbowed to the head and near his eyes; the brain and optical never damage he sustained severely limited his eyesight, so he had to retire from soccer. He was this close to crossing the DespairEventHorizon and be DrivenToSuicide, but Tsubasa and his family helped him through and, in a few years, he built a new and very successful career as a soccer coach.

* ''LightNovel/EndoAndKobayashiLiveTheLatestOnTsundereVillainessLieselotte'': Endo used to be on the baseball team, but an injury to his shoulder put an end to any dreams of going pro (which were unlikely to begin with, seeing that he was "barely average" in his own words). Shortly after, he met Kobayashi who encouraged him to join the broadcasting club, suggesting that maybe he could become a sports commentator instead.

** Narrowly averted by Music/YngwieMalmsteen after he managed to crash his car into a tree. Resulting in him spending almost a week in a coma and doctors believing that he would lose all feeling in his right arm. While the latter fortunately didn't end up happening, the experience combined with his mother dying from cancer around the same time almost made him give up on music. And his following album (Odyssey) had a much more somber tone than his prior works.

** In 1991 while shooting ''Film/DocHollywood'', Creator/MichaelJFox started showing symptoms of early-onset Parkinson's disease when he was just 29 years old, and would be properly diagnosed with the illness soon after. By 1998, the year he went public with his diagnosis, the disease had left him debilitated and unable to work, with most of his roles after 1996 being in voice acting (most notably the voice of Film/StuartLittle).

** For Creator/MichaelJFox, it was a Career-Ending Illness. In 1991 while shooting ''Film/DocHollywood'', he started showing symptoms of early-onset Parkinson's disease when he was just 29 years old, and would be properly diagnosed with the illness soon after. By 1998, the year he went public with his diagnosis, the disease had left him debilitated and unable to work, with most of his roles after 1996 being in voice acting (most notably the voice of Film/StuartLittle).

** Perennial all-star third baseman David Wright was the Mets' answer to Derek Jeter in the 2000s and 2010s, being the face of their franchise and looking like he was going to be a surefire hall of famer as he entered his 30s. However at just 32 years old, he would be diagnosed with spinal stenosis, after which he would only play 77 more games for the rest of his career despite several comeback attempts, and end up retiring at 35 years old, with his prospects of making the hall of fame looking grim.