Setbacks
Had a setback the other week. Played a very enjoyable game out on the right wing, as my team beat arch rivals Fairview 3-1. At half time I had half a mind on coming off but decided to keep going. I figured if I felt anything, or got a nasty knock, I'd come off straightaway, but I was feeling OK.
Managed to get involved and string the odd pass together, and attracted another challenge that received a booking (that was twice in three games now - don't think it had happened more than once in my whole amateur league career before I got injured). I was still jumping out of most challenges, and winced when I went in for a ball with an overwight bruiser with alcohol on his breath (a type never known to time their tackles to perfection), but it was going OK.
If anything it was tiredness that led to the twinge - I raced for a challenge on the keeper, had to check myself at the last minute, and then felt something twinge in the knee. I signalled to come off pretty much straightaway, and the knee didn't feel right, but I wasn't rolling around in agony so I didn't know what to think. The thing with an ACL injury is you don't know what's going on inside the knee. Could the replacement ligament could just rip off without causing too much pain?
I was feeling pretty down about it on the night. I'd half-convinced myself that that was it - I'd knackered the ligament again and could wave goodbye to playing football, or say hello to an endless stream of appointments, scans and physio, yet again. The next day it was sore and swollen, and it hurt to walk for a few days afterwards, but by the time I'd got to Thursday (when I'd arranged to see my GP) it was feeling pretty stable and solid.
The GP waved away any concerns I might have had, and did that bent-knee push-on-the-shin thing (which all docs do) to see if it was secure. She was pretty adamant that I'd be in agony if I'd done anything serious, but was also pretty dismissive of my desire to play football ("do you really need to?") and my obvious anxieties after two years out ("if you're going to be so anxious, why do you bother?"). All in all, not terribly helpful...
But now - 9 days after I injured it - it's feeling good. I did some weights and running down the gym last night and it felt strong, so I'm going to ease my way back again. I'm going to focus on building up the strength in the upper leg, have a few Monday night games of 5-a-side, and get back to Saturdays probably by the end of the month. No hurry, after all...
Managed to get involved and string the odd pass together, and attracted another challenge that received a booking (that was twice in three games now - don't think it had happened more than once in my whole amateur league career before I got injured). I was still jumping out of most challenges, and winced when I went in for a ball with an overwight bruiser with alcohol on his breath (a type never known to time their tackles to perfection), but it was going OK.
If anything it was tiredness that led to the twinge - I raced for a challenge on the keeper, had to check myself at the last minute, and then felt something twinge in the knee. I signalled to come off pretty much straightaway, and the knee didn't feel right, but I wasn't rolling around in agony so I didn't know what to think. The thing with an ACL injury is you don't know what's going on inside the knee. Could the replacement ligament could just rip off without causing too much pain?
I was feeling pretty down about it on the night. I'd half-convinced myself that that was it - I'd knackered the ligament again and could wave goodbye to playing football, or say hello to an endless stream of appointments, scans and physio, yet again. The next day it was sore and swollen, and it hurt to walk for a few days afterwards, but by the time I'd got to Thursday (when I'd arranged to see my GP) it was feeling pretty stable and solid.
The GP waved away any concerns I might have had, and did that bent-knee push-on-the-shin thing (which all docs do) to see if it was secure. She was pretty adamant that I'd be in agony if I'd done anything serious, but was also pretty dismissive of my desire to play football ("do you really need to?") and my obvious anxieties after two years out ("if you're going to be so anxious, why do you bother?"). All in all, not terribly helpful...
But now - 9 days after I injured it - it's feeling good. I did some weights and running down the gym last night and it felt strong, so I'm going to ease my way back again. I'm going to focus on building up the strength in the upper leg, have a few Monday night games of 5-a-side, and get back to Saturdays probably by the end of the month. No hurry, after all...
posted by Badger at 6:10 PM
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