A long journey back to the beautiful game - part 2
man in the middle
After graduating from high school, Luca took a gap year to focus on his leg and get back to football at 100%. Unfortunately, this was not easy for him. Muscle atrophy, mounting and constant stress, daily pain and faulty movement patterns day-to-day became common. A third surgeon decided to perform a third surgery in December 2013 to take out the screws from the previous surgery. Another arthroscopy cleaned up the knee joint, in April 2014. Despite the rehab that followed, the knee was still in bad shape. Compensations started to develop around the pelvis, back, ankle and the shoulder.
Luca arrived in London in September 2014 to find a solution, physically and mentally. After doing an MRI that revealed cartilage damage, doctors agreed on performing a 5th surgery - 5th! You gotta feel for that knee…
The rehab that followed lasted for two years; but pain, instability, mental fear and anxiety remained. Anti-inflammatory drugs, knee steroid injections, psychologist sessions, and osteopathy became part of the new routine for Luca. Despite the best intentions of many Luca still could not kick a ball. He decided to figure it out for himself. Who knows the body better then the one who walks around in it? Learnings and experience would be called upon but now Luca had decided that he was going to fix his knee himself.
Many questions were not answered, or not asked. Advice was given, but perhaps inappropriate advice. As Stephen Covey says, “seek first to understand then be understood”. At the age of 26, Luca became obsessed to find out the missing pieces of the puzzle and solve the knee problem once and for all. He had lost confidence in many people but not in himself. His journey of self-awareness was only beginning.
compensations
“Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you”