The crash that nearly ended Dixie Dean’s career - and his Yorkshire comeback 100 years ago

ONE hundred years ago this weekend, one of football’s greatest goalscorers made a remarkable return to first-team action. Doctors feared that Dixie Dean, Everton’s 19-year-old striker, might never play again after a serious motorcycle accident left him with devastating head and facial injuries. But on Saturday, October 23, 1926, just four months after suffering a fractured skull and a broken jaw, Dean returned to the Everton side to face Leeds United in the old First Division. He marked his comeback with a goal in a 3-1 victory at Elland Road, watched by 24,867 spectators.