In the first part of our six-day series on former Rovers favourite Kevin Gallacher, the Scottish striker tells us how his football career almost came to an abrupt and shocking end after being told by surgeons that he may never play again following a terrible leg break against Arsenal back in 1995.

“I could feel the tears welling up inside me as I was told the truth by my surgeon for the first time. I had to take a long hard breath as I saw my career flash before my eyes.

“What I had always thought was just a run-of-the mill broken leg, should actually have finished my career. The words hit home as I looked back on what I was able to achieve in my 20 years as a player.

“We both shed a tear that day. Myself and my surgeon. Emotions were running high as we reflected on the enormity of what he had just told me. ”

This was the moment Kevin Gallacher finally realised how fortunate he was to have had a career that saw him involved in a Premier League winning squad, play in three major international tournaments for Scotland and enjoy a 20-year top-flight adventure.

From being a frail teenager at Dundee United unable to cope with the physical demands of senior football, to bucking the trend of Scottish footballers failing in England, the former Blackburn Rovers striker has always been one of the game’s fighters.

But when a retired Gallacher was told his broken leg against Arsenal, suffered some seven years earlier in 1995, could have brought it all to an abrupt end, his biggest ever career challenge was suddenly made clear.

The Premier League triumph, Euro 96, France 1998 – all memorable moments that, had his surgeons’s secret fears come true, would have seen Gallacher as just a spectator for some of the decade’s most famous football moments.

“I broke my leg in March 1995,” he said. “I lost a week of my life. I remember doing it but I can’t remember up to the following Saturday – I was that drugged up.

“I didn’t realise it at the time but it was bad, I should never have played football again really. At the time though, I never looked at the negative side of breaking my leg.

“The surgeon said ‘three months down the line you will be fine’. Three months later I was no further forward. Little did I know that he was doing a little bit of psychology because he knew how bad it was.

“He knew there was a higher chance of not getting back to football than there was. He told me that when I finished. Unfortunately later in football Robbie Savage did the same injury and he saw his career go down the pan with it.”

The former Dundee United and Coventry man had joined Blackburn Rovers a year earlier and his goals helped the Premier League new boys to fourth place in their debut campaign.

They carried on their success the following campaign, as Jack Walker and Kenny Dalglish’s revolution continued to take shape, before Gallacher’s career was halted in its tracks on that fateful February afternoon at Highbury.

He said: “We were not resting on our laurels, were buying players and were trying to get Alan Shearer back. Everyone wanted to beat us in that second season because of what we had done the year before. I thought a lot of teams wanted us to fall flat on ur faces because we had money to spend.

“I did it at Highbury, it was freak. A long throw, Alan has dragged Tony Adams under the ball, I was six yards out, looked to half volley it but Steve Bould has put his knee up and my leg has gone across his knee like a twig.

“I had about 2,000 letters from people, fans, managers and clubs. But one from an Arsenal fan saying he heard the break. That touched base to me because at the time I thought it could have been a shin pad.

“You look at the leg now and you wouldn’t know there was anything wrong with it because of the top drawer surgery. I was able to take my time and get it right.”

Unaware of the seriousness of the break and the damage it could have inflicted on his career, Gallacher put everything into his rehabilitation as he strived to play a part in Rovers’ ultimately successful title challenge the following season.

Finally, after eight and a half months on the sidelines, he was able to help their drive towards the Premier League until his comeback was again halted as he suffered another break to the same leg just a few games later.

He said: “The bummer was I broke my leg again in April. From that point on you think I am on a downer. But it wasn’t. It gave me another challenge in life, a challenge to get back and prove myself.

“It was a nervous time, as I was recovering from the first broken leg at the club, the last 10 games. I was really up for it and scored an important goal against Crystal Palace.

“Then in that game I have done a Ronaldo style step over, and John Humphrey has done me late. He caught me on the exact spot. I knew I couldn’t break it – well that was what I thought. I was very confident with a pin in my leg I couldn’t break it.

“Stamping on it was okay but every time I went to walk on it it kept buckling. I went straight back to hospital, got an MRI scan and there was a hairline fracture.

“Later on my surgeon John Hodgkinson said it was the best thing that ever happened because it totally healed the bone inside. When I was ready the next season my leg was ready.”

Having already defied the odds to build himself a Premier League reputation, Gallacher was not about to let his double break stop him in his tracks as he watched Rovers crowned champions in the dug-out.

He was soon back on the field though to earn more international honours, score more top flight goals and establish himself as firm fans favourite at Newcastle in his latter years – some six years after it could all have ended.

“When you think about it, it is a little scary,” he said. “I had some great moments after breaking my leg and to think I almost didn’t get a chance to do that makes you think.

“I guess the thing is I have always been up for the fight, I suppose that is why the fans at the clubs I have played for seemed to take to me.

“I fought to make sure my size didn’t go against me at the start of it all, I fought to make sure I wasn’t just another Scottish flop in England and I fought to establish myself as a Scottish international.

“This was just another fight but I didn’t realise how big at the time.

“When it was happening it was just battling back from injury but now, listening to the surgeon, it was far more than that. I’m just thankful that wasn’t it for me.”