Sports injuries happen all the time. The gruesome ones leave just as much mental pain as physical if not more. People see the obvious deformity in the body. What people don’t see is that initial reaction of being told they can’t play or the feeling that the body part isn’t strong anymore. These injuries take a mental toll because now you take the athlete out of the person and they don’t know what they are. As people they are unable to do basic things because of an injury.

There are multiple different stages of coming back from injury each have their own mental problems. 3 athletes gave their thoughts all at different stages of recovery. The initial injury, athletes typically already know what’s to come.

“I was worried if my season was over or not” Senior Fabio Lara said about his reaction to the injury. Both athletes were worried about the season being over rather than their own physical health. The third didn’t really know the severity and was thinking about themselves as a person “I was mostly thinking about the things I’d miss out on if it was actually a tear. I thought about CIF finals I’d miss, and how I would’ve finally placed top 3 this year, and I thought about clash, whether or not I’d be able to walk at graduation or grad nite, and how I wouldn’t be able to play the sport I love for a while.” Senior Priscilla Romero said about her injury. These athletes all find a sense of self within their sport, which is why they feel their identity was at stake when they first got their injuries.

What triggers the emotions again is when these athletes get the official word that they have a major injury. The usual response is denial, shock, sadness, and/or anger.  “At first I was really heartbroken by it. My dad was definitely the most heartbroken I had ever seen him” Senior Ramos said she felt when she was told her season was over. The emotions very from the type of person “I accepted it but I was still pretty mad about it” Senior Lara said about learning his season had come to an end.  Each athlete represented the 3 main emotion one feels

“Then I thought about surgery an I was scared about whether or not my scholarship would be taken away”, Senior Romero said about the shut down notice.

The most unspoken part of these major injuries is the day to day life problems that these athletes feel as just normal people. There are some obvious one like trouble walking but there are other things people take for granted “On a daily basis even the simplest things were hard like getting up from a chair and even walking was really hard.” Senior Jaelyn’s struggles she had while injured.

Hers were mostly physical while Fabio’s had more mental effects “My grades dropped because I didn’t have any motivation to keep trying because I didn’t get to do the sport I love” Senior wrestling captains issues while recovering from injury. Priscilla is the most current in this stage right now “. From this injury I’ve learned that I’ve really taken things for granted. I miss being able to sleep comfortably, being able to put on and take of my shoes without discomfort, being able to walk normally, taking a shower normally, and being able to dance or move fast without having my knee pop out again.” Senior Priscilla about her current struggles.

Rehab can be one of the most mentally challenging thing for athletes because simple workouts are hard. Motivation is key for these athletes “Throughout it I was trying to keep motivating myself to keep going since I’m going to be playing in college so that’s what my motivation was.” Future collegiate athlete Jaelyn Ramos said about her rehab process. Emotions brew throughout recovery “I was kind of annoyed how long it was going to take for me to get back on the mat” Senior Fabio Lara trying to get back to finish his senior season.

Even after being recovered from the injuries it still has its problems and set backs. Waiting to come back with the progress is hard “I would say I still face a lot of mental challenges since I’m still not fully back to my sport yet and I see everyone else doing their sport and its just like kind of sucks,” Jaelyn said not fulling being back but having a lot of progress. Fully recovered at this point Fabio still faced problems “I was still lacking a lot of range of motion and mobility which was a big part of my move set so it kind of took me a step backwards” Fabios setbacks were not going to stop him from coming back

Fabio is the only athlete of the 3 that has already returned to his sport. Being back definitely was a great feeling but mentally can still have major effects.

Junior Joeseph Zamorano shares his setback when playing with an injury ” Honestly in the beginning I was scared to get hurt because when I got injured I was sad and I thought I lost it all. It held me back and I found out as long as I took my recovery seriously and tried my best to keep my leg healthy and to keep it strong and now I play on it not scared. I mean there is always the fear of getting hurt again and losing my senior season but I know everything will be ok if I make sure my knee is healthy.”

Playing injured gives the fear of not being able to trust in his ability because he has to protect his knee but he has to find the balance because if he is too safe it will end his season. This is another complex found when athletes have injuries trying to balance playing safe and also being aggressive to stay healthy.

These are just some athletes out of many that face mental problems because of injuries.