Prince wrote:The treatment you received when you got injured was that common place in the league? The Port Harcourt stadium always in puddles
There were no medical personnel who specialised in treatment of sport related injuries. If you fracture your leg for example you will be lucky if you are able to come back into the game. You are simply treated like any other fracture injury and no physiotherapy treatment after. Often times many would go traditional, not unusual to see them when they heal the leg look out of shape. That was why most times fracture signals the end of your career unless it is a simple one that does not require special attention.
With ligament and joint injuries such as knee damage, that is even worse. Pray it is a not a a serious one, serious for lack of specialised treatment.
For two seasons I struggled with my knee injury feeding on pain killers to play. I travelled to Benin to see a professor who was supposed to have treated Keshi at some time, the man drew some fluid from the knee some some traces of blood, he told me all I needed was to rest the knee. Rest for how long he never told me, but he told me I did not damage anything.
Fine except that after resting for a couple of weeks and I went back the knee was still bad. I was then sent to a physio in Ibadan, it was in his waiting room that I started reading the books describing certain knee ailments.. One of the description fitted what I was going through, my knee was locking up, which it would require me to move it around at a certain angle to free it up. I was told it had to do with meniscus damage, a tear of the knee cartilage, the padding between the knee joints.
I mentioned this to the physio, he told me ágh don't worry yours is not that bad. Treats me for a week and told me I was OK, but I need to strengthen the muscles around the knee before going back fully.
By now I was fed up, I was beginning to suffer from the side effect of self medication and the pain killers I was now abusing. I was farting like hell... One of the side effects of over use of indocid. So I told myself that if the knee relapse, I would pack it in. When it happened I just packed it in.
A few months later when I had moved over to London, I was still wondering if I could go back, so on advice of some friends and recommendation of a doctor friend, I went to Harley street to see a consultant. It took him less than 20 minutes to diagnose that I had meniscus tear and I had torn my cruciate ligament. When I told him I had been playing with it, he said it was not possible.
He told me a key hole surgery that would take less than an hour would fix it and I would need to rest for about a month. But he gave me 50 50 chance of full recovery because of the damage. The cost of the surgery, 1,000gbp,back then about 200k naira.
I was furious and sad at the same time, furious because for two seasons for lack of the right facilities I put my health on the line and messed up my career. Sad because I thought of many others whose career had fone the same way. Me I was fortunate I had a second chance, many others don't.
If you were injured back then, pray it is one the normal hospital visit can fix, pray you heal before the end of the season, pray that you are a key member of the team. If none of the above the club would throw you out and wash their hands off you. The club is only obliged to look after you for one season, even at that, it is only if you are one of their top stars. I know and saw many who were simply ignored when it became obvious their injury required something more.
When I came to London and read that some players were exempted from playing because they bruised their toes... I almost went into depression.
Some clubs cannot even afford retaining a clinic to treat you. My first venture into club football was Housing corporation of Ilorin, I got injured in a match a damaged my ankle, from the field they took me to Ilorin General hospital told me they were coming, they did not, I hobbled my way to the taxi rank to find my way home. Surprisingly 2 months after they showed apologised and asked me to come back, I told them to get lost...
Playing football in naija was a risk, which one only realise now. I wrote some memoirs on my Facebook wall on my experience with sports injuries.