Every athlete will know that playing their sport and competing against other players and teams will come with some hardship and this sadly has to include the possibility of injury. As an athlete, we have to accept that these may lead to a minor downfall, but the setback will help us in the future.
Two years ago now I was at a local tournament that we visit every year, and it's a quick paced game type, much alike 7's but with around 10-15 players instead of 7. Because of this fast paced game, it's easy to injure, and unfortunately for me that's exactly what happened. I got passed the ball, ran into the tackle to slow down the play, yet the opposition had put two players in to tackle me and my leg was in severe pain. I was escorted off the pitch and had to wait in the ambulance for them to decide what was best for me. They decided to send me to hospital to get it checked out, and although nothing was broken, I was in severe muscular pain in my quadriceps on my right leg, and struggled to walk for a while. However, I returned to the tournament and got on with the presentation of awards and that was the end of the season. Luckily, that was our final match/tournament of the season so I didn't actually miss any training or games as we had the summer break before the next season started up again.
Although sometimes I do feel a little bit of pain in my leg, it got a lot better from then on, and with a lot of rest and recovery time I was back up to scratch for the next season.
Why am I telling you this, you may ask? Well, I'm telling you this so you know that it's perfectly okay to be upset about injuries, and it's okay to be down about the fact you might miss some training or games.
I remember feeling so gutted about missing training for even the small injuries like a sprained wrist or a concussion. However, you resting and letting your body recover from these small injuries will really benefit you in the future.
When you train/play a match, even if you aren't fully injured, your muscles will have small tears which need to recover so they can grow and get stronger. Hence why so many teams are keen on letting players have a day off after a game so they can let their bodies prepare for the up and coming week/s.
Moral of the story is don't worry if you're feeling upset because of an injury, because it'll only help you come back stronger in the future. Keep working on your goals!
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