Playing Me.

Chapter 1: The Injury.

Picture of Anthony in the media box...

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"And it's a one on one situation, it's just him and the keeper. Who's gonna win this battle?...
And then he dances past the keeper and plants the ball in the net. it's a goal by Anthony!!!" He hears the commentator shout as the fans go wild standing up from their sits shouting and celebrating their first goal of the season. Anthony runs towards the stands celebrating as his team mates come running towards him.

"Good job man" his friend, the team Captain Frank says patting his back. Seconds later, the referee blows his whistle and they all assume their original positions. He takes his place on the left wing of the field as the goal keeper kicks the ball back into the field for the game to resume.

Right now, they are playing against Nonvi club, their first game out of six games before they can qualify for the round of sixteen. If they win this game, they get 3 points on the table. Right now they are leading with one goal against the other team and this has lifted their spirits. It's already the second half of the game so they have to defend that goal.

Running towards the goal, Frank passes Anthony the ball. Trapping the ball he passes the ball to another player because he doesn't have an opening, the defenders seem to have it out for him, he guesses its because he had already scored before. After passing it, he runs in the other direction and the defenders run towards the other guy with the ball. The ball gets taken by one of the defenders from the other team, the ball keeps moving from one player to another and now they are at his goal post trying to prevent a goal. The defenders move into action, one of them kicks the ball out and its a corner kick. The captain of the other team takes the kick and in a second of confusion, the other team have a goal as one of their strikers heads the ball in.

Now its a draw, 1 - 1. The other team celebrate their goal while they sulk. They need another goal now and fast, the time is almost up. The whistle goes and the game starts up again, their team has possession of the ball. Frank dribbles past some players, passes to Kike, another player who runs with the ball from the right corner of the field shooting it to him inside the box. His about to shoot the ball into the goal and get them a second goal when suddenly a defenders in an attempt to gain possession performs a sliding tackle but instead of taking the ball, he tackles his legs.

Suddenly pain shoots up one of his legs and he falls to the ground in excruciating pain. He hears the whistle go and the game comes to a stop. His team mates come rushing towards him, Frank pushes past them the same time the referee does.

"What's wrong man? You okay?" He asks. What a stupid question, he's on the group clutching his leg in pain as he rolls from left to right and he's asking him if he's okay. He barely catches it when the referee calls for help and minutes later, the paramedics arrive squatting next to him, asking him questions like where does it hurt?.

Before he knows it, he's on the stretcher being carried away. He doesn't need to be told, He knows it's a major injury and the look on his coaches face says it all. Just after his carried away, he hears the referee call for a penalty after giving the defender a yellow card. By the time his in the stadium clinic, he hears the shouts and screams and he knows that they scored the penalty and the whistle has gone. Making them the winners of the match.

He squirms in pain as the doctors and nurses do their thing. This was not how he wanted to start this season.

. . . . .

Immediately the match was over, he was rushed to the hospital where his injury was diagnosed as a double leg fracture and he was going to be out for up to six months. His coach had come to visit him earlier, talked to the doctor then told him to get well soon. Next was his team mates.

"Oh man! Dude you look like shit" Mike, one of his teammate joked causing him to laugh

"That cast looks tight on ya" well it technically was. After they arrived at the hospital, they performed a surgery on him, he thinks it was called reduction or something. All he heard was the doctors saying something about realigning the bones already the pain from the injury wasn't really allowing to listen or even understand what he heard. Hours later, he woke up with a cast on a hospital.

"So how are you holding up?" Frank asked with a worried face

"Well I feel the way I look, like shit man. I mean what's worst is I don't get to play football for about seven more months, I can't take that, I need to recover quickly man so I can get back in the game" he said

"We are all praying for that, I mean what are we going to do without our star winger?" Andrea asked. He chose not to reply.

"That reminds me, you need to see the news, your injury is everywhere, it spread like wild fire man. It's on every social network, every t.v screen and on every radio." Mike said while throwing his hands in the air to demonstrate.

"So fast, it's not even been 24 hours since the injury" Anthony said

"What you talking about man? You've been in here for 3 days if not more" Andrea said.

"What? 3 days?" How come? What happened?

"Chill out man, they sedated you so maybe that's why you don't remember besides what does it matter how long you've been here?" Kike says.

"So, do you know how much longer you gonna stay in here?" Andrea asked

"Nope, I haven't talked to the doctor yet and I haven't seen my family either" he said shrugging

"Coach told me they wanted to fly you back to Paris for the surgery but the weather was very bad and they didn't want to take the risk so they performed the surgery here and your parents couldn't fly in either due to the weather so coach told them to relax and that after the surgery they would take you back to Paris. after 2 days, your family got restless and they decided to come to New York instead. they will be here by this afternoon, they left Paris yesterday" Frank said.

"Thanks" Anthony said nodding.

"Do you have a therapist to help with your recovery once they let you out of here?" Kike asked. He shook his head.

"I don't"

"Well if you want, I know a doctor, one of the best actually that would be able to ensure your quick recovery" Frank said

"Really?" Anthony asked

"Yea, she's awesome. Remember that guy that broke his backbone last season and before we could blink he was back, she was the doctor that took care of him through his recovery, people were saying it was a miracle, it wasn't, it was all her doing" he praised the doctor, she sounds like a miracle worker and right now I need a miracle!

"Wow! OK do you have any way I could contact her?, I need to recover quickly so I can join back into the league." Anthony said

"Yea sure of course, I'll send you the details later" he said

"Okay thanks man" minutes later, they all left and later that afternoon his parents and sister arrived. They talked for a while before visiting hours were over and they left. Later that evening he was able to gain access to his phones and other electronic gadgets. The number of messages, calls, voice notes he got were out of this world. When he even turned on the t.v in his hospital room, it was his face on the t.v screen as he was being carried away from the injury.

As promised, he got a message from Frank containing all the information to help contact her. After doing a little research he found out she is actually well known in the medical industry. Looking at the time, it was 9:00pm, a little late but he didn't care, the sooner the better. Without wasting anymore time, he dialed her number and a light croaky feminine voice answered

"Hello, who's this? What can I do for you?" She asked yawning. He must have woken her up, anyway it was for a good course.

"This is Anthony White and yes, there is something you can do for me. I need your medical expertise" He said.

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