Toprak's amazing survival story

Ten years ago today, the Borussia Dortmund defender's life changed for good. At that point, he was a promising 19 year-old defender who had just played 30 games in the 2008/9 season for Freiburg.

Whilst on holiday in the summer, he was involved in a karting accident that left him fighting for his life. They were tough days for his family as he was rushed to hospital, where he was operated on seven times in the hours following the accident, and he suffered serious burns on 40% of his body.

When his life was no longer in danger, he was informed that he would have to stop playing football due to his injuries, but this didn't stop the determined footballer from fighting back and chasing his dreams.

It was a tough period for him during his recovery, but he returned a lot sooner than expected as he played against Hamburg on 16th January 2010.

Six days after his return, he was reinstated into the starting lineup, and he played 12 more games that season. In 2011, he decided to leave Freiburg to make the step up to Bayer Leverkusen, where he played a total of 203 games.

In 2017, he swapped Leverkusen for Borussia Dortmund, where, at 29 years of age, he is still an important player for Lucian Favre's side. He has made 50 appearances over the past two seasons for Dortmund - something that he would never have dreamed of as he was fighting for his life 10 years ago.

June 9, 2019