Coping with injuries is always difficult for athletes because all we want to do is, basically, to have our best performances unhindered.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Injuries are part of the game, but sometimes we can avoid them by just practicing our techniques.
I never had a serious injury that kept me out of a big competition. Now everyone has injuries - to their feet or their knees or their backs.
Injuries are not only a physical question, which is the most important thing, of course, but also a question of your mind. If you're thinking: 'I'm not going to make it', 'I can't cope', 'it hurts', 'it's never going to get better', then it won't.
It's always hard to deal with injuries mentally, but I like to think about it as a new beginning. I can't change what happened, so the focus needs to go toward healing and coming back stronger than before.
If you see in sports at a super high level, people get hurt or have injuries when there isn't that pleasure, the true pleasure of the sport, when they're tired or demoralized or they're not quite focused.
As a player, I was fortunate to work with coaching and medical staffs that underscored the importance of utilizing injury prevention exercises, which contributed to my healthy and long playing career.
You can't let injuries dictate the outcome of a football game. You have to persevere and keep fighting. That is how we are. If there is a blade of grass to defend or take, we do it.
The most frustrating thing about injuries is that they take so bloody long to heal.
Being injured is something that happens in this sport. Anybody who gets into it understands that.
Injuries is a part of a sportsmen life; you have to live with it. You can't be down with that; it is not gonna help you.