Rehab

Chapter One

Every professional female athlete knows that sound, the agonising cry from a team mate who is now sprawled across the floor clutching their knee tears streaming down their face. Trainers and physios running from every angle with concern warped on their faces.

July 2022, London England.
The Spanish women's national team are training for the euros to start in just one day when an agonising howl is heard in the penalty area of a shooting drill.
The players look over to see Alexia Putellas their countries hero laying on the floor in floods of tears. Physios immediately surround her calming her down and start what is known as a Lachman test to see the integrity of the anterior cruciate ligament followed by a shake of the head towards the teams national manager.

Team mates have now made their way over to Alexia who is heard telling staff, "I felt it pop, no one touched me I was shooting" her eyes brimmed with tears. She knew, she knew her tournament was over with one day remaining before their journey was to begin.

Staff assisted her up and immediately took her to the medical room, she was closely followed by Mapi her best friend who held her hand whilst they conducted further testing.
Her knee now swollen where the blood has rushed to the joint in a reaction to the injury and now rapidly mobility was getting stiffer by the minute. Crutches were now being passed to her by the medical staff and a van was waiting to collect her to return to the team hotel where she was currently staying.
Alexia was a shell of herself from just hours ago, barely speaking a word. Team mates arriving constantly to just pop in and say hello to let her know they were thinking about her.
Hours later after they got the news her mother and Alba arrived by her side, this is when the Spanish midfielder really broke down. She had just had the season of her life and was determined to win the euros after all the pain and suffering the national team squad had faced this was just another reason she should never of caved and come back to join up with her team. She should have listened to the doubt in her head.
Sleep was difficult she had her knee propped up under some pillows and had yet to hear from her girlfriend who was let know by Mapi what had happened earlier.
3am rolls around and she receives a FaceTime call from her seemingly drunk girlfriend who doesn't even mention the injury just that she wishes she was here to take care of her and that she missed sex. Alexia didn't usually mind these calls but not today she needed her on a less physical level and more of an emotional level. The FaceTime was ended by Alexia after her girlfriend Olga had crashed out on the bed at their home in Barcelona leaving Alexia to hang up feeling worse than she already did.
She had texted her manager Jona declaring she was 'done with football and to buy a new midfielder'. At this moment in time she was done, she didn't want to conquer that steep mountain of rehab and hard work and that same question had repeatedly popped into her head 'why me?'.

Alexia woke with puffy eyes and a ringing head, today was game day and she was going to watch before flying back to Barcelona for the big operation and to start the recovery process.
Grabbing the crutches and already struggling with it she threw her legs over the side of the bed and got up to get ready for the day. A small knock on her door and it opening slowly because heavens forbid they would be allowed to lock their door on international duty  and Mapi appeared with a small pitiful smile on her face.
"Bon dia hermana are you ready for breakfast?".
"Si" was all that came out of Alexias mouth before she moved slowly over to the wardrobe to grab some Spain gear and joined Mapi in the elevator.
Spain would play Finland today in their opening match and were one of the favourites to win the entire tournament, breakfast was full of loud noise everyone ready for the opening game.
Alexia was joined by Jenni and Misa two of her close friends on the team who didn't really know what to say so tried to act as normal as they could but she didn't laugh instead she sat there quietly sipping away at her coffee and barely touching her eggs.

The girls all got on the coach and made their way to the stadium, Alexia sat near the front tears now brimming she could hear everyone getting into game mode and that broke her heart even more. She shoved her AirPods in and listened to some music looking out the window watching them travel through the English city.