History Main / CareerEndingInjury

* In ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', Gutts's foster father has to retire as an active mercenary after a messy leg injury.

* In ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', Gutts's foster father has to retire as an active mercenary after a messy leg injury. Averted for Gutts himself - you would think that losing a hand would end the career of a fighter who specialises in two-handed weapons, but he is stubborn enough to learn to handle the sword using prosthetic hand. (A magnet in the hand helps him maintain the grip.)

* ''SpaceAboveAndBeyond'' has Lieutenant Colonel T.C. [=McQueen=], who was an elite fighter pilot before he suffered a debilitating head injury in combat. He has enough experience to warrant making him a squadron commander, acting in the role of MissionControl for his young pilots.

Very much a TruthInTelevision. In circles such as the police or the military this is sometimes enthusiastically called "earning a desk job".

* Subverted in ''Film/{{Unbreakable}}''. The titular character supposedly had an injury that made it impossible for him to continue playing football, but he faked it because he's the title character.

* Subverted in ''Film/{{Unbreakable}}''. The titular character supposedly had an injury that made it impossible for him to continue playing football, but he faked it because, he's the title character.

* Colombian cyclist Mauricio Soler crashed on the 6th stage of the 2011 Tour de Suisse. At the time, he was in second and had won the second stage, as well as generally looking to be at the top of his form. He crashed going downhill at 80 km/h, and suffered a fractured skull, a cerebral edema, other fractures and hematomas, to e point where he had to be put in a medically induced coma. Over a year later, he announced that he wouldn't try to return to the sport.

* This happens to anyone in later ''FireEmblem'' games that "die" but are too critical to the plot to be removed (and don't cause a Game Over when defeated, as happens to the main characters.) Everyone else is subject to FinalDeath.

* Almost happens to Hayato and Randoll in ''Anime/FutureGPXCyberFormula'' in the ''ZERO'' arc when they suffered serious injuries in a crash at the British GP. They got better and they return to racing (although Randoll takes longer to come back than Hayato).

* ''Film/{{Gattaca}}'': the guy whose DNA the protagonist is using used to be an athlete until an undisclosed incident confined him to a wheelchair.
** The incident was [[spoiler:he was bred (DNA-wise) as a champion athlete and only achieved a ''silver'' medal in the Olympics. He tried to commit suicide and only succeeded in paralyzing himself.]]

* ''Series/{{JAG}}'' is centered on a Naval Aviator named [[Characters/{{JAG}} Harmon Rabb, Jr.]] He was a carrier fighter pilot, following in his father's footsteps, until he crashed his plane in a night landing on an aircraft carrier due to an undiagnosed vision problem. In order to stay in the Navy, he went to law school and became a judge advocate (military lawyer).

* In ''BattleAngelAlita'', Alita's motorball trainer used to be a racer but had to retire after overuse of reflex-boosting drugs damaged his nervous system. Subverted for Jasugun [[spoiler:who knows his brain is dying from being tampered with too much but chooses to die on the track as a champion]].
* ''{{Rideback}}'': Rin gives up being a ballerina due to physical (and mental) injuries caused by a fall.
* In ''{{Berserk}}'', Gutts's foster father has to retire as an active mercenary after a messy leg injury. Averted for Gutts himself - you would think that losing a hand would end the career of a fighter who specialises in two-handed weapons, but he is stubborn enough to learn to handle the sword using prosthetic hand. (A magnet in the hand helps him maintain the grip.)

* In the ''CaseClosed'' NonSerialMovie ''The Fourteenth Target'', the murderer is revealed to be [[spoiler: a sommelier whose taste buds were destroyed in an accident, taking revenge on the people who ended his career]].
* In ''ProfessorLaytonAndTheEternalDiva'', one of the competitors is a famous British football player who fears that his recent injury will become one of these, which is why he's after the secret to eternal life.

* Barbara Gordon was shot by the Joker and paralyzed in [[TheKillingJoke The Killing Joke]]. Her paralysis ended her career as Batgirl. She then renamed herself Oracle and began to create one of the world's most powerful and complex computer systems.

* Subverted in ''{{Unbreakable}}''. The titular character supposedly had an injury that made it impossible for him to continue playing football, but he faked it because, he's the title character.

* At the beginning of ''ShaolinSoccer'' the man who will become the coach to our heroes is a {{jerkass}} soccer superstar until the teammate he's been lording it over hires people to cripple the star.
* In ''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.
* ''{{Gattaca}}'': the guy whose DNA the protagonist is using used to be an athlete until an undisclosed incident confined him to a wheelchair.

* Danny Glover's JadedWashout character in ''AngelsInTheOutfield'' had his career cut short because the villainous sportscaster character deliberately slid into home with his spikes up when they were playing each other years before.

* In ''[[SherlockHolmes A Study in Scarlet]]'', Watson has returned to England after having been shot in Afghanistan. This sets him up to meet [[DefectiveDetective the world's only consulting detective]]... [[HeterosexualLifePartners and the rest is history]].

* JohnnyTremain burns his hand early in the story, meaning he can't be a silversmith.

* John Watson has been invalidated home from Afghanistan due his [[spoiler: shoulder]] injury in ''{{Sherlock}}''. His return to England and subsequent need for a flatshare kicks off his first meeting with [[DefectiveDetective Sherlock]] and the rest of the series.
* A plot point of Danny Messer's backstory in ''{{CSI NY}}''. He was an aspiring baseball player, but an arm injury forced him to quit. (a storyline incidentally drawn from the actor's real life background).

* ''WhiteCollar'''s Peter Burke was a professional baseball player when he tore his rotator cuff. The injury healed just fine and he was able to play baseball again, though a doctor advised him he could re-injure. Rather than risk losing both his baseball career and the possibility of joining the FBI, Peter opted to quit baseball and simply join the FBI.
* It happens a couple of times on ''Series/{{MASH}}''. In one episode, a football player has to have his leg amputated. In another, a concert pianist loses dexterity in his hand.

* In an episode of ''{{Bones}}'' where the VictimOfTheWeek is a professional motorcycle racer, one of the suspects is a paraplegic former racer whom the victim had "accidentally" caused to crash in a previous race.

* ''{{Monk}}'' was able to manage his OCD until his wife's death caused a breakdown that made the condition much worse. This ends his career as a police officer.

* ''{{Cheers}}'' established this as the reason Sam left baseball...with a twist.

* Jimmy Brooks from {{Degrassi}} was shot in the lower back and paralyzed in a school shooting, forcing him to use a wheelchair for the rest of his life and ending any chances of a basketball career. One Degrassi mini showed that had Jimmy never been shot, he would have recieved a scholarship for playing basketball.

* ''DeadIsland'': the back story for Logan, an ex-football star.
* ''JaggedAlliance 2'' has an Alumni page on the AIM (Association of International Mercenaries) website, where among the retired, KIA and dishonorably discharged there are also those who suffered injury or had failing health.

* In ''MassEffect3'', [[ProfessionalKiller Thane's]] terminal illness known as Kepral's Syndrome finally reaches a point where Thane can no longer reliably perform his job as an assassin. However, this doesn't stop him from [[spoiler: intervening to save the salarian Councilor when Kai Leng and Cerberus attacks, though the disease does slow him down to the point that he is badly wounded, and the injury itself will eventually kill him.]]

* ''{{Kick Buttowski}}'''s mother Honey Splash ended her career as a speedboat stuntster because she tore her tendanacious ligamental flexor. Kick encourages her to try again years later, but the injury flares up at a plot appropriate moment.

* ''ObanStarRacers'': Rick Thunderbolt, the original earth team pilot, is seriously injured in his first race, leaving him with a nervous system that freezes up at inopportune moments. After some episodes moping about it he eventually agrees to help train Molly as his replacement.

* Such injuries happen often in ProfessionalWrestling: StoneColdSteveAustin, TedDiBiase, {{Wrestling/Edge}}, Darren Drozdov, and Hayabusa are just some, and then there are the injuries that weren't only career-ending, but [[FatalMethodActing life-ending]].

* In ''[[SherlockHolmes A Study in Scarlet]]'', Watson has returned to England after having been shot in Afghanistan. This sets him up to meet [[DefectiveDetective the world's only consulting detective]]... [[HetereosexualLifePartners and the rest is history]].

* In ''[[SherlockHolmes A Study in Scarlet]]'', Watson has returned to England after having been shot in Afghanistan. This sets him up to meet [[DefectiveDetective the world's only consulting detective]]... and the rest is history.

* John Watson has been invalidated home from Afghanistan due his [[spoiler: shoulder]] injury in ''{{Sherlock}}''. His return to England and subsequent need for a flatshare kicks off his first meeting with [[DefectiveDetective Sherlock]] and the series.

* Barbara Gordon was shot by the Joker and paralyzed in [[Comicbook/Batman:TheKillingJoke The Killing Joke]]. Her paralysis ended her career as Batgirl. She then renamed herself Oracle and began to create one of the world's most powerful and complex computer systems.

-->'''Guards from ''TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'''''

* In ''TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', all guards share a pool of random sentences, which any of them can say. One of those is the page quote, making it sound like this is the backstory for every single guard. An alternate line spoken by a Stormcloak soldier is that he took a sword to the chest which forced an end to his adventuring career.

** A racer named John Cleeve has his racing career ended when a car accident, but it happened outside the race track.

* This is revealed as the back story reason for why Jack Krauser faked his death and defected to Wesker's side in ''ResidentEvilTheDarkSideChronicles''. Krauser used to be a special ops soldier who worked alongside Leon but during the course of the mission, a viral entity crippled his arm. Krauser eventually sought out Wesker, who provided a way to heal his arm; out of gratitude, Krauser now serves Wesker as his special agent (even got a sweet mutated arm blade out of the deal).

* In ''{{Berserk}}'', Gutts' foster father has to retire as an active mercenary after a messy leg injury. Averted for Gutts himself - you would think that losing a hand would end the career of a fighter who specialises in two-handed weapons, but he is stubborn enough to learn to handle the sword using prosthetic hand. (A magnet in the hand helps him maintain the grip.)

** Another major example is Briarlight, whose spine was broken when a tree fell on her just before she was about to recieve 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.

** Also at the end of season 7, Bud Roberts steps un a landmine in Afghanistan and has to struggle throughout the next 2 seasons to remain in the Navy.

* In an episode of ''{{Bones}}'' where the VictimOfTheWeek is a professional motorcycle racer, one of the suspects is a parapalegic former racer who the victim had "accidentally" caused to crash in a previous race, causing the paraplegia.

* In ''ResidentEvilTheDarkSideChronicles'' this is revealed as the back story reason for why Krauser faked his death and defected to Wesker's side. Krauser used to be a special ops soldier who worked alongside Leon but during the course of the mission a viral entity impales his arm permanently crippling it. This was awful for Krauser because he liked his job in the U.S Military and wanted to continue it. Krauser eventually sought out Wesker who provided a way to heal his arm and out of gratitude now serves Wesker as his special agent, even got a sweet mutated arm blade out of the deal.

* {{Wrestling/Edge}} was forced to retire from WWE fairly young due to injuries he'd sustained over his career.
** ProfessionalWrestling has plenty of these: StoneColdSteveAustin retired after multiple neck injuries; Darren Drozdov became a quadriplegic due to a ring mishap, and then there are the injuries that weren't only career-ending, but [[FatalMethodActing life-ending]].

* Chicago Bears player Gale Sayers had to retire after injuring first one knee (the one depected in the film ''Brian's Song'') and then the other, both injuries requiring surgery and extensive rehab. He now works with a group that raises funds for injured players and their families.

* ''{{Bleach}}'' has a unique variant for the shinigami. If their blade is damaged or destroyed while in its Bankai state, it will be permanently weakened. Depending on the damage suffered it may be partially repaired or the damage worked around, but the shinigami will never be as strong as they were.