Adrenaline is your best friend in the heart of a game. It slows down time so you can get that extra thought swirling; you can get all the help you can get. Being at a constant run chasing a ball while sliding past people and knocking whomever out of the way, pushes your adrenaline to the max. That may be why I didn’t take much notice to the cleat taking a direct kick to the side of my knee causing it to make the most unappealing pop. A lone scream shot out amongst the people surrounding me but it took me a minute to figure out that the scream came from me. I’m on the ground. My knee is bleeding. I can’t feel a thing.

My team mates all rushed over to check on me but I’m; I just need to clean my knee and walk this off. I can walk this off and it will be okay, right? Pain hit like a tidal wave of pure torture but I wasn’t giving in. I bit my lip to keep from screaming out again and causing an even bigger scene. By the time I look up again, a pair of guys carrying bags rush towards me; just the sight of two guys looking frantic about my possible serious injury, makes me on edge. They quickly set to work on examining how serious my knee is, this worried me. Could this injury ruin the rest of my season? Will I be able to play in next weeks game against our biggest rivals? I bet they will laugh at how easily I was taken out. Will this – my inner monologue is cut short by a stinging in my leg.

I looked down to see the two guys trying their hardest to clean off some of the dirt and blood so they could get a better look. Seconds seem like years as the pain from their actions settles into my red, irritated skin. The pain is getting worse but I had to deal with it momentarily. With my knee being as clean as it would possibly get, I dared a look; it was a swollen mess. The two guys told me, after a speedy examination, that it was not broken – thank goodness – but I definitely will not be able to walk on it for a good while. What will this do to my possible future soccer career? Will I even get to have a soccer career if I won’t be able to play when the scouts come? I am stopped, yet again, from my frantic questions by a different distraction; my mom. She frantically pushed through the crowd to get to me and do the well known once-over-look to see if I’m in one piece. This has all happened within 4 minutes yet it could ruin my entire future. I couldn’t focus long on this impending doom. I needed to focus on keeping my mom at bay as she tried to play doctor and fix me up which we all know won’t end well. This may be more of a job than being able to recover. I guess we will have to wait and see.