April 8, 2014

It was a normal evening. I was in my hostel resting after my dinner. My friends sometimes used to go to play football for fun as it was our last semester. It was going on for around for a month. We put on our shorts and jerseys. I remember that we were not enough in number to be grouped into two teams. (Un)fortunately there was a group of our juniors in approximately the same number. After running for a while around the ground, we started to play. I, as usual, put myself as a defender.

The game began. We were playing on a smaller field as we were just a bunch of amateur guys. I remember making one or two chances for the goal but neither of them resulted into goal. Later on in the game, while I was in the corner defending the ball from their striker, I don’t know how I kicked the ball to my goalkeeper that it swung in air and reached inside our goalpost. That was a shit moment. I was feeling sorry perhaps like any other player. We kept playing and I changed myself from defender to striker. My friend kept moving ball forward and I shouted hard enough to get the cross. It was a perfect cross. I was in their D. I kicked the ball towards their goalkeeper and at the same time, their defender, while defending hit on my leg. I could not see the ball while I was falling down. I rolled on the ground twice but I had not thought it as anything serious until the moment I tried to stand.

As I put my right foot on the ground, I felt a twist in my knee-ankle bone (tibia). I could not figure out where was the problem. Soon, other players came around me telling I had scored a goal taking my revenge and equalize the match. But I asked to go out the field as it was not possible for me to even walk. After the match finished, my condition was the same. Two weeks later, with an MRI, I got to know it was a ligament tear. My anterior cruciate ligament was torn. I was unable to walk normally, sit normally. I had thought a lot to do for this last semester. I could not go for a trip in which all of my friends went.

Perhaps, this was a break for me. But life never stops. I had to do things. There were certain tasks to be taken care of. I was on a physiotherapy program. All I want was to make sure that my healing is more than risk to the knee. It has been a year now. I am not completely well. But I am much more better now. I can do many things. I can run. I still do the physio exercises to make myself better. I can not play that bad as much as I could play an year ago, but I can play. I am again trying to be a frequent runner by running around 2km daily.

My motivation is the man inside me which wants to get fitter everyday. I can not go back in time to avoid this but I can have a time in future to make myself stronger. This post has already been too long but this is what I really wanted to express. Injuries do come, but don’t let it extinguish your inner fire.