Doyle-Hayes v Hibs: Putting a price on a damaged career 💰

Nutmeg FC's Nick Harris has been involved in dozens of cases similar to the ex-Easter Road midfielder's ongoing legal action — he gives us his insight

Lawyers representing Jake Doyle-Hayes released a statement last month saying the 26-year-old midfielder is suing Hibernian for an injury he suffered, allegedly inflicted by his manager at the time, Lee Johnson, in a training game in 2022.

In the media coverage that the case attracted, Doyle-Hayes’ legal representatives argued that his working life was derailed by that injury, and had “greatly restricted” his career.

While his lawyers have declined to comment on the amount of money they are seeking, they say his loss of earnings have been “substantial”, and that, without this injury, his career would have played out at a higher level.

He left Hibs earlier this year for Sligo in Ireland, having previously been on a trajectory that suggested he might become a Premiership mainstay.

Irishman Doyle-Hayes (pictured above) represented his country at every level from under-17 to under-21, and was sufficiently talented that he was recruited to Aston Villa’s academy in his teens.

He made his debut for Villa aged 18 in the English League Cup in 2017 before loans to lower-division English clubs and then a permanent move to St Mirren in 2020, and then Hibs in 2021.

Johnson, now 44, spent years as a lower-league player in England with Yeovil and Bristol City, and briefly Kilmarnock, before becoming a manager.

He worked at several English clubs including Oldham and Sunderland before managing Hibs in 2022-23. He is currently the manager at a Belgian club, Lommel, which belongs to the Abu Dhabi-funded City Football Group that also owns Manchester City.

Both Hibs and Johnson have declined to comment on the Doyle-Hayes case.

It is not uncommon for footballers to sue for damages when their careers are impacted by injuries that they argue have clearly been caused by someone else, maliciously or not.

I have been involved in the legal cases of dozens of footballers over the past 20 years who have sought damages for career-limiting events.

Today’s article will take you inside some of those cases, and attempt to share with you what is probably happening behind the scenes with Doyle-Hayes’ case and others like it.

While I’ve been involved in other legal cases that have dealt with players at Scottish clubs — and still am, I should be absolutely clear at this point that I’m not involved in the Doyle-Hayes case in any way.

The first time I was involved with a claim for damages was in the late Noughties when I was contacted by a lawyer representing Ben Collett, a Manchester United academy player who had his career effectively ended by a bad tackle from an opponent.

Collett, who never played a first-team minute for United, was eventually awarded a minimum of £4.5million in damages at the High Court in London for a career that never was.

My involvement was specifically related to what footballers earn, or might earn, because of my knowledge of player salaries — through long-term association with unions and players. The Collett ruling can be read in full here; it was appealed, but the judgment was fully upheld.

At the other end of the scale, I spent several years, mostly pro bono, working with lawyers for a group of players whose lives were destroyed by an abusive coach working for Manchester City who received nothing because of a legal technicality.

Today’s piece, the rest of which is behind the paywall, will explore:

• The numerous reasons footballers sue their clubs or rival clubs for injury damages.

• The burden of proof that the claimants need to meet — often the most crucial aspect of any case.

• The evidence that a particular player would have played at a certain level in the future.

• The money that a player would have earned if they had played at that level, which is actually the simplest part of the puzzle, and the bit that I’ve been involved in with all the cases I’ve worked on.