The rest of the team was also running cross-country and doing roadwork. More than me, in some cases. They didn't get stress fractures.
I do know all about the wear and tear problem. The knees were going by age fourteen. Wrestling is very hard on knees, and my family's knees suck. My father and my uncle both did for one of theirs. The ligaments are fine in my case, but there's not much cartilage left. I can still hike long distances, but roadwork isn't an option any more. It hurts way too much.
The theory is that the stress fracture was a compensation injury. The knees were toast, so I was probably leaning back too far as I ran to alleviate the pressure, which ultimately resulted in some jerk with a burning matchstick jamming the thing into the back of my knee at seemingly random intervals for months on end. I couldn't see him, but he and his matchstick were definitely there.
Then I went and wrestled all season on the thing, which meant it took another year for it to finally heal entirely. It was my senior season, so I wasn't about to sit that one out.
I have a lot of black swan moments. I seem to be at the center of some bizarre fate nexus, which I suppose beats the tiny thundercloud.
I don't recall Gbamin having an injury record that stood out. He had a few short-term ones young, and old Gbamin was probably going to be more Iniesta than Cal Ripken, Jr. as a result, but I didn't see anything in the data series that gave me pause.
The "no medical" thesis is interesting. It could be that we have a lot of injuries because the durable players sign for clubs like United, and we get the guys that are talented but can't pass a good medical. I tend to think that the problem is that we're always on a thin squad and we flog the horses too hard, which then perpetuates the problem. Keane seems to be hard to break. The rest, not so much.