When kids get injured playing grassroots football, especially when they’re young, thankfully it tends to be quite a rare event.
They usually just jump back up and carry on playing, or maybe slightly worse, get subbed off for a few minutes then come back on as if nothing happened. Since my lad started playing, it’s always been in the back of my mind that if he got injured, the team would suffer because of it. Not particularly because of his ability but because of his position. The same applies to the majority of grassroots teams.
If a keeper gets injured during a grassroots game and can’t carry on – if the two sides are evenly matched – chances are that the team in question will probably end up losing the game because of how specialised the goalkeeper’s job is. More often than not, there’s usually a volunteer that’ll be happy to borrow the gloves, throw themselves around and possibly have the chance of being the hero of the hour. But, unless they play in goal with some kind of regularity, the opposition will sense the chance to take advantage of their lack of goalkeeping skills. In recent years, there have been the introduction of agreements to level sides up in the event of games being dramatically one-sided but even this is unlikely to redress the balance in the event of a keeper going off.
A keeper is a keeper.
Between the sticks, the difference in ability of the keeper and their (outfield) substitute, generally widens the older they get. The lad who steps up at our grassroots team has only played in goal for the team once in the last three seasons – a preseason friendly three years ago when we were on holiday. The reason being, that my lad has never been injured during that time. Or, for that matter, the three years before that at his previous club.
As they are now, in the process of moving up to u14’s, things have changed a lot as far as our stand in keeper is concerned. For starters, the goals are huge compared to the last time he stood in – and he’s not the tallest. During his training sessions over the last couple of years, my lad has spent a great deal of time working on his positioning and angles to give himself the best chance of keeping the ball out of the full sized goals. The replacement keeper hasn’t done any work on that kind of thing. We could spend time on it during any training session throughout the year but his priority has to be that of learning his trade as a centre half.
As the lads become older, they specialise in their own position. They might be asked to play in a different position now and then but generally an outfielder will be able to do a decent enough job in any other outfield position. A keeper playing out, or an outfielder playing in goal and not looking like a fish out of water is probably the exception rather than the rule.
So, during the second half of a pre-season friendly in early June against our u13 team, when my lad went down and stayed down, the immediate concern was a new experience for him. And me. I ran onto the pitch, where he was sat and could see before I reached him that he was in pain. When I got closer, even though he was trying to stop anybody from seeing, it was apparent that there were tears as well. My heart sank. Without being a big bruiser, my lad is – like many other keepers his age – a brave, tough lad when it comes to putting his body on the line, diving at the feet of strikers, risking injury but thinking about making the save first.
I asked him where the pain was. He pointed to his hamstring. Without attempting to treat him or ask if he could carry on, I did the funny hand signal that physio’s make when a sub’s needed and helped him to his feet. He put his arm round my shoulder and we made our way to the side line. We got him sat down and made him as comfortable as he could be and by the end of the game, he said the pain had eased a little bit. He was half limping, half hobbling but generally seemed a fair bit happier than when I got to him on the pitch.
Without really knowing too much about hamstring injuries, I did a bit of an internet search and the plan was to get some ice on it when we got in. For the next couple of days we kept icing it to keep the swelling down, as well as rubbing anti-inflammatory gel on. In my medical ignorance, I just assumed with the level of pain he was now in, he had just pulled the hamstring. Over the next few days, there seemed to be fairly little improvement in how it was feeling.
By now, I was asking him a few times each day how it was feeling. The frequency increased after he came home from school one day and said his PE teacher had asked him if he’d be interested in trialling for the city’s schoolboy team. In his six seasons of playing grassroots and schools football, his teachers have never once put him forward for trials – but that’s a story for another day. The first trial was due to take place at the start of July. After a few more days of seeing no real improvement in how he was feeling, we decided it was going to take more than ice packs, crossed fingers and positive thoughts to get him right. So I rang a physio.
I couldn’t get out of work to take him to the first appointment, so his Mum took him. After asking what had happened and getting a bit of background information, the physio had a look at him. He massaged his hamstring, asked him exactly where the pain was and how sore it was. Then while he was laid on his back, he asked him to raise his leg (keeping it straight) as high as he could. Obviously this was restricted a certain amount by the injury but the physio left him in no doubt that he should be much more supple than he actually is. He used an ultrasound on his hamstring, confirmed that it was a tear and talked him through some stretches to do. He also gave him a sheet of paper to take home, with the stretches illustrated on.
During the appointment, his Mum had mentioned the schoolboy trials to the physio and asked if it was likely, or even just possible that he’d be in any kind of state to be able to take part. He said we’d have to wait and see how the recovery went but there was a chance. The physio asked him to do the stretches just as he’d explained and for us to make a follow up appointment for a few days later to check on his progress. He also gave him some KT tape to use – the stuff you often see professionals using, to spread the load of the repairing muscle. On the way out they made an appointment at reception for three days later.
When I got home from work they told me what the physio had said, so I did the only thing I knew. I crossed my fingers and thought positive thoughts.
Between the two physio appointments, just as instructed, my lad did the stretches regularly. Almost religiously in fact. The injury had really shaken him up (and he’d realised he wasn’t invincible) and he was determined to do everything he could to get himself fit again. As we were still there for all the matches and training sessions, his grassroots manager asked him if he’d be willing to take the warm up beforehand, what with him knowing some genuine stretches, rather than the half-arsed lolling about that a lot of teams do before a game. He was chuffed to bits.
The lads are all turning into young men and as the physio told us, as their bodies change, muscles, bones, ligaments and cartilage all grow at different rates, which is part of the problem. Without a decent warm up, there’s now a greater risk of pulled or torn muscles, which is what caused my lad’s torn hamstring – basically a lack of proper stretching both before games but also, just in general.
We’ve recently started going to the gym and the physio said that it was fine to get him doing some light exercise to start working the hamstring. Nothing too strenuous but then also at training to do some jogging and then dribbling with a ball and then very gradually increase the intensity.
We’re another week further on into his recovery from the injury and he seems to be nearly there. He’s still not quite 100% but he had another light training session with me last night and based on that we decided he’d be ok to attend the schoolboy trial today.
He got through the 2 hours of trial – with his hamstring taped up and came away without any pain or soreness in it.
They’ll contact his school on Monday to let him know if he’s through to the final trial next week. From how he performed today, there’s something wrong if he doesn’t get asked back.
Either way we’ll just keep the faith.
Keeper of the faith 