Celebrity chef Simon Rimmer is one of the few people unfortunate enough to be able to empathise with David Beckham..

The Something For The Weekend host was having a kick-about with a group of other dads last year when he pulled-up in excruciating pain.

His Achilles tendon was ruptured – the same injury believed to have been suffered by David Beckham – and he faced months of frustrating rehabilitation.

Their various talents couldn't be more different – Rimmer made his mark in the kitchen and is the owner of the Greens vegetarian restaurant in Didsbury and Earle in Hale, while Beckham is at his best on a football pitch.

But the Chorlton-based chef says that he too missed out on a soccer dream as a result and ended up retiring from the beautiful game.

“I was supposed to play in a charity, celebrity football match at Anfield three weeks after, that,” says the big Liverpool fan. “So emotionally, it was terrible.”

Simon's eye-watering injury happened at Hough End, Chorlton, which doesn't have a great deal in common with the San Siro stadium.

His injury was very similar, however.

“I had a full rupture, like Beckham,” he says. “I was chasing the ball and I was convinced someone had kicked me. I actually felt it snap.

“It felt as if someone had hit me with a baseball bat on the Achilles. Then your calf absolutely cramps up and it just shoots up your leg.

“I was in absolutely excruciating pain.

“Then after that, to be honest, after about 20 minutes it doesn't hurt so much.”

What might reassure Beckham's fans is that Simon was back out running only five months after having had corrective surgery at The Alexandra Hospital, Cheadle

But he has noticed that his performance isn't what it used to be.

“I never had a great deal of pace anyway but I've lost a bit of pace and a big load of spring in my step.”

Simon was on crutches for eight weeks and couldn't enter his kitchens during that time.

It caused complications for his filming schedule too and he used a special crutch called an iWalkFree because the BBC wouldn't let him do the show on conventional crutches.

For the sake of the day job, he's called time on his amateur football career.

“The decision to stop playing football was mine,” he says. “After the injury I couldn't work in my kitchens for 10 weeks so I had to employ someone to do my job for 10 weeks. My reason for retiring is purely financial.”

Beckham pulled up during Italian side AC Milan’s Serie A encounter with Chievo at the weekend.

Dr Sakari Orava, the surgeon who operated on the millionaire midfielder at a clinic in Finland last night, is optimistic that Beckham can make a full recovery.

“Top athletes usually heal well, but it’s a few months until you are back at the same level as you were before,” he says.

But it isn't only men who are prone to problematic Achilles injuries.

Carol Cundiff's Achilles nightmare began when the 43-year-old was using her foot to put her Yamaha Fazer 600 motorbike on its stand outside her Lancashire home.

She collapsed on the ground in agony and was in the operating room 48 hours later.

“It just went ping – a very good description is that it's like someone being shot,” says Carol, a production manager the Cooneen textile company in Ardwick.

Carol was on crutches for 12 weeks and in plaster with four different casts.

It wasn't until the middle of summer 2009 before Carol could get back on her bike, a passion she shares with her husband John, 48, who runs the Alpine-tt motorcycle touring company.

But she'll never be able to wear heels quite so killer as the ones she used to.

She says the key to success is hard work and determination – characteristics that Beckham definitely boasts.

“It's very much up to yourself, you get out what you put in,” she adds.

THE EXPERT

Physiotherapist Duncan Mason likens an Achilles' tendon injury to the process of a rope fraying.

“If it frays a little it can still be strong, yet if it frays a lot it could snap, says the director at Athlete Matters at Worsley Physiotherapy and Sports Injuries Clinic.

The Achilles tendon is found at the back of the ankle and connects the calf muscle to the bone in the heel of the foot.

The rate of recovery from an injury depends on the “grade” of the injury.

“A grade one is where you tear a few fibres. A grade two is more significant, you can tear up to half of it and a grade three is where the whole thing goes.”

Duncan says that Beckham's age – he's 34 - and sports career wear and tear will be other factors to take into consideration.

Poor biomechanics can lead to problems too, particularly among people whose feet have a tendency to flex and roll upon impact with the floor.

The type of treatment also depends on the extend of the injury, Duncan explains.

“Grade one and two injuries require immediately rest, using crutches and applying ice regularly. Weight can be put on the foot after around five days or up three weeks after, respectively.

“Deep tissue massage is used to make the tendon stronger.

“Grade three injuries are put in plaster for between six -12 weeks or let it heal.

“With an athlete you'd probably go for surgical intervention to join the two ends of the tendon together.”

He says that the injury can end careers.

“Ashia Hansen, the Commonwealth champion at triple jump, she won in Manchester, she ruptured her tendon and was never the same after that.”