Professional sportsmen and women are determined people ? so much so that even life-threatening diseases and lost limbs can't keep them away from their game.

The most recent case is Ivan Klasnic (kidney transplant patient) who will play Croatia versus Turkey Euro 2008 quarter-final on Friday. But there are loads of examples. Here are a few miraculous comebacks by sportspeople over the years.

Cycling

Greg Lemond
His cycling career was almost brought to a fatal halt just a year after he had won the Tour de France to become the first American to win the world's most famous cycling race. Most people crack jokes about the mother-in-law or run in fear of her but in Lemond's case it was his brother-in-law who peppered him with gun pellets while they were out duck shooting. It took him two years to get over the incident but on returning to the saddle in 1989 the tough as teak American landed the Tour de France and added another for good measure a year later.

Lance Armstrong
Texans by tradition have always shown a stubborn frontiersman streak symbolised by the stand at The Alamo against the Mexicans. Armstrong first had to fight a successful battle with testicular cancer which spread to his lungs and brain. The former top triathlete then returned to defy the sceptics and displayed talents in the saddle that he hadn't shown before his illness winning seven Tour de France titles in a row to blow away the records fo five-time winners Miguel Indurain, Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault and Eddie Mercx. However, he also has had to battle against constant allegations of doping, fobbing them off with the comment he 'was the most tested athlete ever', saw his first marriage fail and then his engagement to singer Sheryl Crow was called off after a three year romance.

Golf:

Ben Hogan
One of the true golfing legends, who suffered career threatening injuries in a car crash along with his wife in 1949 in which he suffered a double fracture of the pelvis, near fatal blood clots, a fractured collar bone and a fractured left ankle. However, 'The Hawk' as he was known or 'The Wee Ice Mon' in Scotland, won five of the six tournaments he entered in 1953 including the 'Hogan Slam' which was the US Open, The Masters and The Open ? he was unable to play in the PGA championship because it began before the Open finished in a remarkable piece of synchronised programming.

Paul Azinger
Remarkably only ever won one major, the 1993 PGA Championship, though, he came close on several occasions. Ultra competitive character he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma but in typical battling style came through it safely and won the 2000 Sony Open on the USPGA tour. One wouldn't want to take such a tough character on in his favourite game of poker. Old golfing foe Nick Faldo will have to do just that later in the year as they pit their wits as non-playing captains of the Ryder Cup teams.

Horse racing

Bob Champion
Immortalised in the film Champions, where he was played by John Hurt, after the extraordinary tale of how the top National Hunt jockey was diagnosed with cancer underwent treatment with the goal of riding Aldaniti in the Grand National. Was only given a 40 percent chance of surviving the cancer but came though and then capped it by riding Aldaniti to victory in the world's most famous steeplechase in 1981, leaving not a dry eye in the house at Aintree. Later pursued an unsuccessful training career, but had more success in founding the Bob Champion Cancer Trust.

Swimming

Natalie du Toit
Talented able bodied swimmer ? who swam aged 14 in the 1998 Commonwealth Games ? whose career looked to have been cut short when aged 17 in 2001 she had to have her left leg amputated below the knee after a car ran into her scooter. However, showing admirable determination and amazing willpower she qualified for the 2002 Commonwealth Games and reached the 800-metre freestyle final, the first disabled athlete to achieve such a feat. She has since trumped that by qualifying for this year's Olympics.

Athletics

Oscar Pistorius
Pistorius, who had both legs amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old, may not be optimistic about reaching the qualifying mark for the men's 400 metres at this year's Olympics but the 21-year-old South African has already shown that one day his dream may well become reality as he competes on specially-adapted carbon fibre blades. Imaginatively called the 'Bladerunner', earlier this year he won his battle to at least be eligible to compete in the Olympics, when a ban on him competing with able-bodied athletes imposed by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Motor racing

Nikki Lauda
Outstanding Formula One driving talent of his time he won his first world title in 1975 and looked destined to become the first pilot since Jack Brabham in 1959-60 to win two successive championships until he had an appalling accident in the German Grand Prix in Nurburgring. So bad were his injuries that a priest administered the last rites. However, he made a remarkable recovery and was even able to return for the climax to that season and pushed James Hunt all the way in the title race. Retired in 1979 but returned in 1982 as he needed the money to shore up his airline and won his second world title in 1984 ? edging out Alain 'The Professor' Prost by just 1/2 a point.

Alessandro Zanardi
A talented Cart driver, he won two titles but failed to have the same impact on two tries in Formula One, posting just one point. In a family already no stranger to tragedy ? his sister, who was rated a top swimming talent, died in a car crash ? he almost lost his life in a horrific crash during a Cart race in Germany in 2001, in an event that was thought was going to be cancelled as it fell just after the September 11 attacks in the United States. He had to have both his legs amputated but having designed his own prosthetic legs he returned to competitive racing in the World Touring Car championships series and won three races in three seasons. He has also been back into a Formula One car as Sauber asked him to test drive a car for the, though he acknowledges he will never race in one again.

Tennis

Renee Richards
Comeback of sorts after undergoing a sex change operation, opthalmologist Richard Raskind became Renee Richards as he/she sought to prove she could mix it with the best on the WTA tour. A British newspaper columnist acidly remarked 'what'll happen when the umpire calls 'new balls please' but Richards did enjoy a successful time on the women's circuit. Reached the top 20 and along with Betty Ann Staurt the US women's doubles final in 1977 where they lost to Martina Navratilova and Betty Stove. Also a useful mixed doubles player ? which must have been interesting for her male partner ? and later became a successful coach to Navratilova.