Life after a sports injury

For me, soccer was more than just a sport. I have been kicking around a soccer ball for as long as I can remember and running with shin guards for most of that time. So when I incurred a groin injury that prevented me from playing soccer for almost an entire year, I was obviously frustrated and disappointed. This injury prohibited me not only from playing soccer at my 100% capacity, but limited all of my training for a period of 9 months as well. Long gone were my days of sprints, passing drills and weight lifting. It felt unfair that I should have this injury when all my team mates continued to run on the field, doing all the same movements I did. Only I hurt my groin and the sense of injustice I felt was frustrating. I was angry but I knew that I had to set this rage aside and focus on getting better. Needless to say the pain I incurred from this injury was unbearable and kept me off the field for months. However this wasn’t the worst of the injury.
Everyday activities for me were painful as well. Walking up stairs became painful as was bending down to pick something up. But even simple tasks such as getting out of bed, sitting down at the table and standing up became difficult. Every time I coughed and my body jolted, I was in pain. For many months, waking up in the morning was an exercise in itself and even before I left my house, I experienced a great deal of pain. Never before did I imagine that these daily activities could be so difficult nor did I ever think of all the muscles at work for these simple actions I do everyday without a second thought.
In order to help heal and strengthen my muscles, I underwent intensive physical therapy for months. For three to four hours everyday, I went to my rehabilitation appointments where a personal trainer helped me in my activities. Slow exercises and muscle isolating movements helped me with my injury but with slow results. I was often frustrated seeing weakness within myself and noting that simple exercises that I knew could have done without blinking before my injury were now beyond my reach. Even as I pushed myself during my therapy sessions, the weakness I felt and the struggle to do small movements gave me feelings of disappointment. I could not stand seeing myself so physically disabled and each day was an inner struggle. Although I could see small improvements I wanted to be back at 100% as quickly as I had hurt myself. The slow process of physical therapy was trying on me both physically and mentally. I was always accustomed to believing that if I set my mind on a physical task, I would be able to accomplish it but with my muscles injured, no amount of thinking positively could instantly heal my muscles to work the way I wanted them to. Only slow, tedious exercises would help my muscles regain their strength, agility and flexibility to what they had been

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