The news from Switzerland that FC Zurich had decided to launch legal action against an opposition player for injuring one of their own opens a duty-of-care can of worms for professional football.

In the 19th minute of a Swiss league match on Sunday afternoon, Aarau midfielder Sandro Wieser took out Zurich’s Ivory Coast international Gilles Yapi-Yapo.

Wieser appeared focused on the ball, but after being beaten to it by Yapi-Yapo, he ploughed his studs into his opponent’s knee, which buckled under the impact.

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Yapi-Yapo was stretchered off, and Wieser was sent off – as he should have been – and he will now have to serve the mandatory suspension for a straight red card in Swiss football. Case closed, right?

Alf Haaland has a go at going down with a “fake injury” (Keane had torn his cruciate ligament). Photo: AAP

Well, no. FC Zurich’s president Ancilo Canepa has launched criminal proceedings for intentional injury.

And those injuries are extensive – Zurich said Yapi-Yapo has a torn anterior and interior cruciate ligaments, serious cartilage damage, meniscus tearing and deep bruising in his thigh.

He faces an extended period on the sidelines and there is a chance that – at 32 – he may not return to the same level.

The challenge was crude but by no means the worst ever seen on a football field, and it was in the course of play, not off the ball.

As always, these things look much worse slowed down. There is nothing to suggest from the vision that Wieser set out to intentionally injure Yapi-Yapo.

One day he may write a book and confess to just that – as Roy Keane did of his 2001 tackle on Alf Haaland.

Keane earned a red card on the day, and later a five-match ban and a £150,000 fine when he revealed in his autobiography that it was an act of vengeance for a slight from Haaland four years earlier.

If Haaland was so inclined, he could have had a case against Keane for lost earnings – although it was problems with his left knee (not the right that Keane destroyed) that forced him to give the game away.

Keane takes his revenge, and has a quiet word with Haaland. Photo: AAP

Keane’s tackle on Haaland and Wieser’s on Yapi-Yapo are similar, but Wieser expressed remorse for his challenge. All evidence suggests Keane may be unfamiliar with remorse.

Wieser, however, was reckless. It is also reckless to strike a man outside a pub, or get behind the wheel when you’ve been drinking. Lives can be altered forever.

There is one argument that says, as bad as each tackle was, surely incidents like these are an occupational hazard for professional footballers.

Accidents happen, but they are more likely to happen when someone is reckless, and there should be consequences for those who are.

In 1995, Rangers striker Duncan Ferguson served 44 days in Glasgow’s Barlinnie Prison for a headbutt on Raith Rovers’ John McStay in a game at Ibrox a year earlier. (see below)

If Ferguson could be jailed for an assault that left McStay with a cut lip that wouldn’t have caused him to miss a match, then surely an injury that could keep a player out for a year, or end his career, should be punished more severely.

At first reading, Zurich’s move looks excessive and, if you’ll pardon the pun, knee-jerk.

But studs-up challenges are still a blight on the game, and many players have never recovered after being on the receiving end of one.

In the AFL, the consequences of a bump or tackle are taken into account when determining penalties. Maybe football should follow suit.

Perhaps, with the threat of legal action and, potentially, jail time or a massive fine hanging over their heads, players will think twice before rushing into tackles with their boots raised.

However this story pans out, it will be fascinating.