Hatem: I nearly lost my leg

HORROR ... Nigel de Jong crunches into Hatem Ben Arfa

HATEM BEN ARFA returned to training at Newcastle after his injury nightmare and revealed: I nearly had my leg amputated.

The French midfielder was out for six months after a horror tackle by Manchester City's Nigel De Jong left him with a broken left leg.

Ben Arfa, 24, who has been doing his rehab in France, said: "I was afraid for my career. I had to have a second operation in November because of a big infection. It could have been very dangerous.

"I was told I could have had my leg cut off if the doctors hadn't intervened very, very quickly.

"So today I'm just really happy to be able to play again. It hurts me to see the images of my injury, it makes me feel sick. I've seen the pictures at least 100 times. De Jong sent me a text message, I don't speak very good English so I didn't understand every word.

"But basically he said he hadn't meant to do me any harm and that he was sorry.

"I replied it was OK and that's football. But the big problem is the referee didn't even give a foul against him for that tackle, let alone a card.

"If there's no punishment, he can get away with anything. I don't want to be having a go at refs, but they must protect players a bit more."