Footballers mind-set to an injury

Mind-set

During my mid twenties I suffered a few long-term injuries and I really struggled to cope mentally. I wasn’t a great person to be around and unfortunately my family would take the brunt of my low moods. I would have a lot of self-pity, not being able to do my job made me feel useless. It was during one of these times that I made a conscious decision that things had to change, it wasn’t fair on the people close to me.

I started reading a lot of personal development books and I engulfed myself in positive practices and routines. It had an amazing effect on my life. To this day I read books every day that will improve myself as a person, it has allowed me to detach myself away from football, which is something I always used to struggle with. This has had a positive effect on my game as well as my personal life. So following the injury at QPR, I tried to take all negatives out of the situation and look at only the things I can effect.

There is nothing I can do about the diagnosis of the injury and nothing I can do about not playing. To stop thinking about these things, I look at all the things in my life I am grateful for, my wife and children, my friends and family, my occupation. I know I am an extremely fortunate individual who is living a privileged life that thousands of young kids dream of, so I really have no need to be moping about! Doing this will always shift my mood if I’m ever feeling down and it will be something I do on a daily basis to make sure my mind-set in the right place to optimise my recovery.

Operation Time

After a lazy day on Sunday, I was up bright and early on Monday morning. I caught a train from Shrewsbury down to London, meeting Phil Hayward en route.  We met with the specialist James Calder at his clinic around 1pm and after a quick X-Ray we were in his consultancy room reviewing the scan. He said it was obvious there was a significant break and the sensible option for me would be to have a surgery.

He briefed me on things I needed to do in preparation for the operation, things like no food and drink. We were then sent over to Cromwell Hospital in West London where a room would be ready for me to check in to. I would be his last operation of the evening so I knew it could be quite a while before I was taken down to theatre and I was already feeling hungry!!

It was a long afternoon waiting; I flitted between reading Steven Gerrard’s autobiography and watching Netflix’s ‘Making A Murderer’ to pass the time. With having two young children at home I don’t get to watch much TV so away trips and unfortunate situations like this are a good chance I get to catch up on films and box sets.

I finally got wheeled down to theatre just after 10pm, it had been a long day but at this point but I was more concerned how long a day it had been for James Calder!! I asked the nurse how he was feeling, and asked if he needed some Red Bull? She laughed… But I wasn’t joking!

I then got prepped with needles and tubes ready for the anaesthetist. He started pumping different fluids into my veins; the first he said was a strong painkiller and said I would start to feel ‘woozy’ in 30 seconds. I don’t know what his definition of ‘woozy’ is but I felt like I had just necked 10 pints… I felt steaming! He then put some general aesthetic in my hand and said you might feel a cold sensation moving up your arm and you will start to fall asleep shortly. Anyone who has had this done before will know it’s a strange sensation. I was determined to count to 10 and try to hold off going to sleep, I think I got to about 4 before I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore!

Post Op

Operation done!

I came around from the operation about 12.30am and then drifted back off till about 1.30am. When I woke this time, a nurse was in my room and asked how I was? I just replied, “I’m starving!” So there I was at 2am tucking into a big 3 course meal, it was amazing! After this I drifted in and out of sleep till around 7am. I then had a huge breakfast including an omelette. Cereals, fruit and toast, all topped off with a nice cup of tea. The service was amazing.

I was still in quite a bit of pain and my foot was throbbing! The operation involves three main incisions along the outside of my foot. One at the fracture sight, one at the base of my 5th metatarsal and one in my heel where a bone graft is taken. Also I had some cells taken from the bone marrow in my pelvis, which along with the bone graft is used at the fracture site to encourage healing.

A screw is then inserted at the base of my metatarsal along the length of the bone. I was then stitched back up and that’s it done and dusted! So after all that, the pain wasn't surprising and it stayed throughout the morning until I was discharged at around 1pm. It was an uncomfortable journey home as well which wasn't helped by breaking down on M40 turning my journey back to Shrewsbury into a 6-hour trip. I was desperate to get home, desperate to see my wife (Emma) and my kids (Jack 5, Evie 3) and also get showered and start feeling human again!

Starting my Road to Recovery

My main aim once I was home was to reduce the swelling. I had a lot of bandages on so I wasn't able to ice effectively. James Calder asked me to keep my foot above my hip as much as possible so the fluid would drain, he recommended for every hour, I shouldn't spend longer than 5 minutes with my foot down. This isn't as easy at it sounds! Luckily Emma has been amazing and has waited on me all week!

I am non-weight bearing for the first two weeks so even if I do make myself a drink it is near impossible to take it to another room without spilling it. So it has meant Emma has been doing everything. Its difficult as well not being able to really engage with Jack and Evie when they are playing. I seem to be trying to persuade them to either play a board game or watch a film with me. Nevertheless they have been keeping me well entertained, Jack showing me his football tricks and Evie doing her gymnastic routines! 

One thing I can control is my diet! I am a bit of a chocoholic and I do have to watch what I eat as my metabolism doesn't seem to the same as most of the boys in our team! I did a lot of research in hospital on how to improve my recovery and with some help from Emma who is a personal trainer and a real nutrition enthusiast and help from the sports science team at Wolves we have come up with a plan, which especially during the first 2 weeks will be vital on how quickly I will recover.

As I said earlier, the first few weeks are all about reducing swelling so I am eating foods high with anti inflammatory values, no refined sugars, and foods with high calcium content to help bone growth. So as you can imagine our fridge is very green and natural at the moment, we have kale and spinach coming out of our ears! I do love my cheat meals and chocolate but I know especially in the early stages I have to be disciplined enough to see the bigger picture! Not as easy as it sounds but one week in and so far so good! 

My scars 5 days post operation.

I was back in at the training ground on Thursday to see the medical team. They wanted to take my bandages off and assess the wounds. Also Phil Hayward could give me different things to get started with to help with the recovery process! I could start using a Game Ready machine at home, which is a brilliant bit of equipment, it supplies ice and compression using different body part wraps.  I could also start using an Exogen machine; this is a bone-healing piece of equipment, which uses high frequency waves applied to my foot to encourage bone growth. Once the bandages were off, it was interesting to see how my foot looked, and I was very impressed with how the scars looked, I also didn't have much swelling so all the keeping my foot above my hip had really helped!

Game Ready on with the football!

Now back at home one week on from the injury, I'm sat at home watching the football scores on the TV, Game Ready on whilst writing my first ever blog! Since the injury, everything has gone to plan and I have had a really positive week, everything seems to be on track. I'm hoping a weekly blog will help me along my road to recovery but also give people who read it a real personal insight into the football world and what it takes, mentally and physically to recover from an injury. As I've mentioned footballers live a privileged life but I know players who have really struggled with mentally overcoming their battles with injury and this will hopefully touch on some of the mental battles that I am going to face. But for now, I am positive, have great people around me and I've already nearly completed 10% of my road to recovery! 

Hope you enjoyed it!

Eddo