A former Liverpool defender once missed matches for one of the most unusual reasons imaginable — he was shot at a nightclub just a few months after making his Premier League debut.
Footballers often deal with injuries like hamstring tears, knee ligament issues, fractures, or muscle strains. But it’s almost unheard of for a player to be ruled out because they were shot.
In October 2003, Jon Otsemobor — who had only recently broken into the Liverpool first team — was hit in the backside after a gunman opened fire in a nightclub in Liverpool city centre. The shooter used a small-calibre pistol. According to BBC News, an 18-year-old friend of Otsemobor was hit in the hand, and another man from the group was shot roughly 20 minutes later.
Otsemobor, who was 20 at the time, had made his senior debut in a League Cup match against Southampton less than a year earlier and had recently played his first Premier League game in a 1-1 draw with Newcastle United.
The gunshot injury forced him to miss several weeks before he eventually returned to playing. In a 2019 interview with Planet Football, Otsemobor revealed that Robbie Fowler had also experienced trouble in the same club months earlier.
He explained what happened that night:
“We were celebrating my friend’s new baby. He got into an argument with someone, took a gun off another lad even though we told him not to. The other guy then fired at me — probably just to scare me — but it ended up hitting someone’s hand and then hitting me.”
Otsemobor said blood was pouring out and that paramedics later told him he was lucky. Had the bullet struck slightly higher, it could have shattered his hip and ended his career.
Despite the frightening incident, Liverpool manager Gérard Houllier continued to support him. But when Rafael Benítez arrived in 2004, Otsemobor was informed he wouldn’t be offered a new contract. He later admitted he broke down in Benítez’s office, begging for an extra year because he didn’t want to leave his boyhood club.
After a loan to Crewe Alexandra, he signed permanently for Rotherham, then returned to Crewe in 2006. He later enjoyed a successful spell at Norwich City and also played for Southampton, Sheffield Wednesday, and MK Dons. He retired in 2014 after a short loan at Tranmere Rovers and now works in property development.
Reflecting on his past, Otsemobor said he regrets going to certain places that gave people the wrong impression of him. Still, he finished his career with over 250 appearances across the Championship and League One — an achievement many professionals never reach.
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