The Curse And Blessing Of Sports Injuries

Hi, I’m Dom. I’m one of the team captains of Frankfurt Lacrosse, one of Germany’s better lacrosse teams. And I’m known as the “glass man”.

At age 14, it all began. I was running around with my brother, chasing his friends, when I slipped and twisted my ankle. Diagnosis: torn ligaments, two. 6 weeks no sports. “Shit. But hey, shit happens sometimes.”

Sometimes became often. Now, 11 years later, I’ve had my fair share of sports injuries: 12 torn ligaments (6 in each ankle), 3 concussions, knee ligament issues, blown out cartilage in my wrist from doing too many pushups, a partially torn quadriceps, the list goes on and on. And, two weeks ago, I added another undisclosed foot injury. In my 9 year lacrosse career, I think I’ve sat out a solid 2–3 years simply with injuries.

Trust me — it sucks. Badly. An injury means hours, days, weeks of effort flushed down the toilet. All those gym session, all those late night practices, all those hours of stupidly throwing balls against a wall and catching them again — just to watch the game you’ve been working hard for from the sideline.

Sports injuries are a curse. They keep coming back, and while you can do a lot of things to become less injury-prone, sometimes you’re just out of luck.

But, as with everything in life, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Even something as being carried off the field can be positive.