Back to writing

Hello Everyone,

I apologize that I havent contributed to the blog in so long. A lot has happened in the last 3 months, unfortunately most of it was not good news. But I have a lot of stuff to write about now, so I will put up different entries about all the things that have happened to me.

In this entry I would like to talk about injuries. There is no such thing as "good" or "bad" injuries - any injury is very annoying and can turn out into a huge setback for a player. But often it is the "minor" injuries, those that the people outside of the team dont hear about, that create the most trouble and controversies.

You ask how to define a "minor" injury? This is exactly the issue, as there is no legitimate definition. Depending on who you ask (player, coach, doctor), the definition varies...

For coaches, there is no such thing as a "minor" injury. Unless something is torn or broken, the coach will always pressure the player into playing. On the other side of the coaches are the doctors/trainers. They are most interested about the player's health and are usually very conservative. When something is hurting, you should sit out and let it rest, rather the push yourself through it and make things work. In between these two extremes stands the player, faced with the dilemna as to which side to choose. On one hand you have your health at stake. An "minor" injury that is not treated correctly can easily turn into a season ending injury, in some cases even career ending. On the other hand, you have the playing time, or more importantly your money, at stake. If you dont practice/play, you may loose the coaches trust, you may loose minutes, or another teammate can take your spot in the rotation. What is the right way to go? Well, this is for each player to decide for themselves.

So what kind of "minor" injuries am I talking about? There are numerous, so I will mention only the most common ones: twisted/rolled ankle, pulled muscle, jammed/twisted finger, swollen joints, etc. All of these things hurt, but usually the pain is not severe enough to prevent you from playing, or at least thats what they tell you...