Viborg
At Viborg, he established himself as one of the best central defenders in the Superliga, and he was at times used, with relative success, as a striker. In his three seasons at Viborg, he appeared in 94 league games for the club and he scored 18 goals. In the summer break 2005, Gravgaard moved on to league rivals F.C. Copenhagen (FCK), alongside Viborg's goalkeeper Jesper Christiansen.
Nantes
On 6 July 2008, he signed a contract for three years with FC Nantes in the French Ligue 1. [2] In the first half of the 2008–09 season, he played for FC Nantes in 14 games of Ligue 1. Performance wise, the first 14 games of the season was unfortunately very bad for the club with: eight defeats, three draws and three wins. For the next eight games, the coach decided not to offer anymore playing time for Gravgaard. In January 2009, he then agreed with the club, that he was free to sign a loan contract with another club, in case any offers would arrive.
Return to Nantes
When he returned from his loan contract to FC Nantes in July 2009, he agreed to have an operation of his toe done. In the past year he had been playing with a lot of pain from his toe, due to chronic tendonitis, and the operation was believed to cure the problem. Unfortunately the operation failed, and he therefore agreed to have a second operation in December 2009. The second operation left him with a "stiff toe", but succeeded to remove the pain. [4] By the end of March 2010 he was ready to play football games again, [5] but for the remaining part of the season he was never given a chance for a comeback. Instead the club decided in May 2010, to try to file him as having a lifetime injury, to their insurance company. [6]
In August 2010, the filing of Gravgaard as "lifetime injured" was approved by La Médecine du Travail (the department for Occupational Health, under the French ministry for Labour). This decision was however appealed by Gravgaard, as he was convinced not to have any physical problems, that could force him to stop his football career. [7] on 16 September, he won the appeal, and regained the legal right to continue his football career. When he asked FC Nantes to accept his return on the training field, the club however also required him to first pass a series of additional medical tests. [8] Gravgaard at the same time announced, that he most likely would pass all the tests, but that he felt his future prospects anyway were rather bad. Because earlier in 2010, FC Nantes had told him not to count on anymore playing time for the first team of the club. And when he then asked them, for an agreement where he instead could be released from his ongoing contract, with the purpose of becoming entirely free to seek a new contract with another club, they had also refused. By the time of September 2010, the only hope Gravgaard therefore had, was that FC Nantes would change their mind, and accept him to leave the club for free, which would make it possible for him to sign a contract with a new club, where he could play for the remaining part of his career. [9]
Four months later, when he had passed all additional medical tests, he once again tried to show up at the training field. This time however, he now got the message, that he had been permanently dismissed from the club. As Gravgaard had an ongoing contract with FC Nantes until July 2011, and did not receive any salary since May 2010, he consequently opted to launch a court case against his club, where a final ruling will arrive in June 2011. After being dismissed by FC Nantes, Gravgaard announced in Jan.2011, that he would now end his active playing career for good, and that he would continue – at least for the next half year – to work as a football commentator, pundit and analyst, at the Danish TV channel Canal 9. [10]
