Sports injuries are one of the biggest mishaps in sports and can affect people in different ways, such as whether a hurt player is able to participate, how a team plays without them, and how the injured player feels physically and mentally.
Kelis Wilson, a former second base softball player was injured when the opposing team hit the ball straight into her shin. Kelis states her injury caused her to concerned her because, “I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to play for the rest of our games. But, after going to the, um, emergency room, and, you know, getting it checked out, and stuff, I was fine. But I just had to take it easy for the next few weeks. But it did cause me to worry a lot.” Though the incident brought her team closer together and the shin recovery was only two and a half weeks, it did affect her knee, which still hurts today.
Samantha Exantus, a former track runner, has injured both of her knees over time due to not having the proper sneakers to run. She states it feels like early arthritis. Mrs. Exantus says that, “Mentally, I feel it makes me feel older than I am, because, like, I know I want to do certain things but doing those things hurts, so I can’t do it so it really bothers me.” Mrs. Exantus feels like her injuries are limiting her mobility.
Klay Thompson, an NBA who suffered from an ACL rupture and a ruptured achilles, says, “You have a lot of sleepless nights…and a lot of ‘Why me?’ ‘Why me, universe, I worked my tail off to get here.’ It molds you into a better person, though, I can guarantee that. If everything was just gravy all the time, we’d be spoiled.”
To protect himself from the mental side effects injuries have, NBA player Derrick Rose, states, “I wasn’t watching TV at the time, and if I was watching TV I was watching movies and stuff far away from basketball, so I didn’t really hear about it.” All of these players’ experiences prove that recovering from sports injuries is not easy.
However, Ms. Exantus and Ms. Wilson both have advice to share. Ms. Wilson says, “Make sure to take care of yourself first and don’t try to put the sport ahead of your well being, make sure you get checked out. Make sure you get looked at.”
Mrs. Exantus states, “First of all if you run track and you’re serious about running track you definitely should invest in the right sneakers, don’t think you can just get any kind of like Jordan’s or whatever and say that I’m going to join the track team because you’re going to damage your legs right. Then the other advice I would give is just don’t, like, work through the pain, don’t be in pain and say I’m not going to do anything because that’s when arthritis sets in even at a young age.”