Column: ESP-Em

It’s everyone’s worst athletic nightmare: a sports injury.

Sports injuries are defined as “injuries that occur during exercise or while participating in a sport,” according to Healthline Media. This can include anything from a bruised knee to a torn ACL. And, most often, a sports injury is something minor that doesn’t require too much time off. 

But for some, it devastates their athletic career. The injuries you hear about are often the most destructive ones. You hear about Aaron Rodgers and the 13 screws in his collarbone. You see the videos of Gordon Hayward or Kevin Ware breaking a leg on the basketball court.

For many fans and spectators, their first thought isn’t about the athlete’s well-being. The first thought after these kinds of injuries is team-oriented and game-focused. “How long until he can play again? How will my team win without this key player?”

Though the most heard-about injuries are on the professional level, the same happens on the collegiate level. Buckshot took a hard hit against the University of New Mexico and I had to kick myself when my first thought was whether or not Liberty would win again without him. Troy quarterback Kaleb Barker tore his ACL and it was difficult not to be glad that Troy would be without its starting quarterback.

Here’s the thing: a sports injury is a lot more than a missed season or a few games. It’s easy to see an athlete as just another body on the field, but that’s not realistic. Sports injuries involve a lot of physical and emotional pain, which can last well
beyond recovery.

Many athletes become depressed or anxious after an injury, according to the NCAA and the Sport Science Institute. Some of the reactions can include sadness, lack of motivation, anger and disengagement.

A sports injury means absence from your favorite sport, sitting idly by while your teammates plow forward. Even after recovering it’s easy to feel like you’ve fallen out of the loop.

And, from personal experience, the emotional consequences can be worse than the injury itself. I had surgery to replace a torn ACL in August my senior year after a high jump accident. For those that don’t know, it takes three months to recover and three additional months to return to normal. 

Those months aren’t fun. For the first few weeks after surgery all you can do is spend hours in physical therapy learning to bend your softball-sized knee past 30 degrees. You eat, sleep, and sometimes bathe with one of those giant hinged braces on your leg.

And it hurts. I’m not talking about the knee, either. It hurts to miss out on the sport and the friends you love because no matter how much time you spend with the team, it’s impossible not to feel left out.

My injury kept me from participating with the color guard and put me in a different part of the marching band — one that didn’t involve any marching. And though I spent a lot of time with the girls in the guard, there were inside jokes I missed and several friendships that never got the chance to stick. 

The worst was when I was asked to return my flags to the school because I couldn’t use them anymore. Yes, they belonged to the school, and yes, I couldn’t do much with them, but I didn’t want to surrender them. I was still a part of the guard, even if I couldn’t participate.

I’m pointing out that, even though you can get back into the sport and even though a body part can heal, it’s more than that. It’s dealing mentally and emotionally with the fact that, even though the rest of you is ready to go and wants to participate, there’s a broken part that just can’t, no matter how badly you want it.

Next time you see an injured athlete, don’t think of how the team will win without him or her. Remember that there’s a whole lot more to a sports injury than a torn ligament or a broken bone; it’s a struggle inside and out. And nothing hurts more than being ignored or replaced because of an injury you can’t control.