This is my first blog post because I’ve only just got round to starting. I’ll warn you now, this will probably be a lengthy opening post because my injury happened a few months ago now, but I’ll try to keep it interesting. A bit of background about me - I’m mid 20’s and before the injury I was playing football (soccer) usually 2 times a week, so pretty active.

It was on May 18th of this year when I was playing football when I hadn’t really warmed down from the first match and I was asked to help out my mate’s team so I agreed. Anyway, coming on as a sub (no warm down/up) I go to sprint forward and I heard the dreaded snap. I initially though it was my shin pad elastic snapping, but couldn’t put any weight on my foot, so I knew it was something pretty serious. After 45 minutes of waiting for the game to finish, I went to A+E (an hour and a half wait), then went to see a nurse who did the Thompson test and confirmed it was a partial tear of the Achilles.

I was put in a cast that night and told to return the next day so they could take a further look at it. After deciding it wasn’t a full tear, they told me they wouldn’t need to operate and I would be in the cast for 8-9 weeks, then into an Air Cast (big moon boot) for 3 weeks, then I should be able to walk. I was pretty gutted at the time because I knew I’d be out of action for a few months, but I concentrated on trying to get fixed.

The recovery went according to plan; I was out of the cast after 9 weeks, straight into a boot. It was pretty strange trying to walk again as it felt like my leg was going to give way! I was up and walking again without the boot by mid-August. It didn’t feel quite right though, because my ankle was swollen and I had a pretty bad limp. The doc booked me in for physio, which I went to on the 20th August. It has to be the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced, but I was willing to put up with it if it sorted my leg out haha.

I had a music festival to go to in the last week of August, so I really needed to be on my feet or else there was no chance it was going to happen. By the time the festival arrived, I was walking and driving, so happy days. Festival went by pretty quickly, and upon my return I had my second physio appointment. The ankle was very swollen from all the walking at the festival, but I thought nothing of it. During my second physio, she had me on a treadmill doing a fast walk for 5 minutes, then had me do a few stretches. It felt very tender, but who was I to know better than a trained Physio Therapist? After the stretches I was told to stand on some steps and raise both feet onto their tiptoes several times. I was very wary of doing this because my leg didn’t feel up to it at all.

I did it a few times and it felt pretty strange, then SNAP! It re-ruptured! I was devastated. It felt like I was dreaming, I felt so many emotions. I felt angry that it had happened again, gutted because I knew what would be coming for the next few months, and just overall fed up.

Fast forward to today (nearly 6 months after first rupture). It was a full tear this time (they said it could have gone at any time), so they operated (on 3rd September) and put me in a cast for 2 weeks. They then took the cast off and put me straight into a boot. I’ve been in the boot since mid September, the wound has healed well apart from a couple of inches at the top so have had it cleaned and redressed this week so it can heal correctly.

I am currently on my crutches without the boot to allow the wound to heal and I have my first physio appointment next Tuesday (expect an update then). I’m really dreading physio after what happened last time, but I suppose I need to go.

Apologies for the very long opening post. I wanted to share my story, because I’ve been reading many others on here for months and it’s given me inspiration and confidence that I can recover and hopefully kick a ball again one day.