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A footballer recounts a knee dislocation at 12 and an ACL tear that ended his Luton Academy career. Released and told he wasn't good enough, he had to grow up fast and take control of his own future.
A footballer recounts a knee dislocation at 12 and an ACL tear that ended his Luton Academy career. Released and told he wasn't good enough, he had to grow up fast and take control of his own future.
There was a football career at one point, right? Yeah, so like a junior stint. Yeah, 100%. And up until I was 12, like, I was playing at a very serious level, and that was genuinely the dream I had, was to be a footballer. But pretty traumatic experience when I was like 12 years old where I dislocated my left knee. And, you know, just picture like my shin bone was almost poking through my skin, and I was looking down like— it was like really horrible injury. And I was never the same player after that. And then a few years later, I tore my ACL playing football as well, and that kind of confirmed like, all right, this dream is is over. Um, I played it in academy as well, but then I got released just like, you know, amidst all these— in Watford Academy? It was Luton Academy, actually, ironically. Um, which is obviously a small team, but they produce some amazing players. And yeah, like, from, from 12, 13 years old, you know, you get pulled into a room and said you're not good enough to play here. And that was like, again, another really traumatic experience. Like, I had to grow up very quickly, and I had that, like, you know, getting told you're just you're not going to make it here, you need to improve, all this shit. It was a big reality check. And I think that was another— well, that was a pivotal moment in me, like, really becoming independent, becoming a man, and like thinking, okay, in this world I need to like fucking do things myself, and I need to, you know, take accountability and improve, and, you know, all this stuff. So that was a massive moment, to be honest.
