NEWCASTLE ace Martin Dubravka reluctantly began playing football after he sliced his own leg open with a machete.
The Slovakian was forced to try his luck between the sticks after the injury ended his ice hockey dreams.
Dubravka, who joined the Magpies on loan from Sparta Prague in January, was five-years-old when the accident took place.
He told The Telegraph: “I didn’t always listen when I was younger.
“I might have gone into ice hockey, but when I was five years old, I hurt myself really badly.
“It was a family BBQ and I was chopping some wood with a machete.
“My parents were saying, stop that, stop that, you are going to hurt yourself, but… I put it in my leg.
“My parents had told me 100 times and I still have a big scar.”
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He could not continue skating, so he decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and try his luck at football.
The 29-year-old has not let a goal in for Newcastle since completing his switch to the Premier League in January.
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But doctors revealed that Dubravka was lucky to escape the accident with just a scar.
He added: “If it was a few millimetres higher the doctors said I would have had trouble walking and there would have been no chance of me becoming a goalkeeper.
“I was unlucky, but lucky at the same time.
“You know, maybe this was meant to be.”
It was reported in February that Newcastle can snap up the on-loan goalkeeper for just £3.5m at the end of the season.
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