The Times’ Russell Kempson with a Wednesday morning item that might well make Joel Zumaya’s Guitar Hero mishaps seem perfectly reasonable by comparison.

Footballers have a habit of suffering bizarre injuries and Leroy Lita has joined their embarrassed ranks from the apparent safety of his bed. He pulled a leg muscle and is likely to miss Reading™s opening match of the season against Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Lita proved a goalscoring success for England as they reached the semi-finals of the European Under21 Championship in the Netherlands during the summer. However, he experienced rather less rise and shine when he awoke on Monday morning and found that he was unable to train with his teammates.

œLeroy is in a great deal of pain, Steve Coppell, the Reading manager, said. œHe woke up, stretched while in bed and has done something to his leg. We don™t know what happened. It looks to be a problem with a nerve. Maybe he has displaced one but he could hardly walk and had to sit out training. It came on so dramatically that we are just hoping it goes away as quickly.