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Chelsea Gill smiles as she crashes through a hoop during Boyle County¿s senior night ceremony last week. Gill returned for the Rebels¿ last six regular-season games after missing 12 games with a torn meniscus, her third such injury to the same knee. (Clay Jackson / October 6, 2012) |
Things couldn’t have looked much worse for Chelsea Gill when she fell to the field in the very first game of the season, but they couldn’t have turned out much better.
There would be surgery and rehab after Gill suffered the same injury for the third time, and there will probably be a price to pay later in her life. However, there would also be the opportunity to return to action before her final soccer season slipped away, and that gave her all the motivation she needed to get through her latest trial.
Gill is back with the Boyle County girls and ready to help them attempt to make another deep postseason run beginning this week, when the 21st-ranked Rebels open play in the 45th District Tournament.
“I just love the atmosphere of postseason,” Gill said. “It’s so much different than regular season. It’s do or die, if you lose you’re out. Especially since I’m a senior, if you lose, you’re done, and I’m not planning on playing soccer in college. I don’t know, really, that any of our seniors are, so it’s a big deal for all of us who’ve grown up playing together.”
Gill plays three sports for Boyle, and she wasn’t sure she would get to play any of them in her senior year when she got that familiar feeling in her right knee after a collision during the soccer Rebels’ season opener Aug. 23.
“My first thought was I didn’t know if I was going to play anything my senior year,” she said. “I hit a girl, and I got up and tried to walk, and as soon as I took I step I knew. I was pretty sure it was the same thing, because it felt exactly the same as the times before.”
The injury was a tear in the meniscus, a disc that serves to disperse friction in the knee, It was the third time it had happened to Gill in as many years, and the rehabilitation period after the first two surgeries was several months.
But this time the surgeon removed 80 percent of the meniscus, leaving her with less tissue but also with much less recovery time.
“Usually after the first (injury), the second time you tear it they’ll go ahead and take it out or take a chunk of it out, at least. But for me, it was in two totally different spots where I tore it, so they took a risk and tried to repair mine twice,” Gill said. “It was one of the first cases where they’ve ever done that. They reassured me that it would be better, because in the long run I would want my meniscus, but it obviously didn’t work. So then they said, ‘We’ll take it out this time.’”
With most of the meniscus gone there is no risk of a reinjury, so she was running within two weeks and playing again in less than six weeks.
“Obviously it was real discouraging getting hurt, but in a way, knowing they were going to take it out (and there would be) less recovery time than last time, it was almost reassuring,” she said. “The second time they held me out five or six months trying to keep it from tearing, so six weeks is almost nothing.”
Boyle coach Brian Deem said losing Gill was a crushing blow not only to her but to the entire team.
“I can’t tell you how big the gasp was when she went down against Henry Clay. All of us were just hoping it wasn’t an ACL,” Deem said. “I remember the text vividly when she told me it was a tear, she was tore up about it. ... And then I remember the text when she said she was cleared and she was coming to practice. Big smiles, big smiles on her face.”
Gill has played in six games since her return and has scored seven goals, including four in a game last week against Southwestern.
“Everything’s going good. I’m really happy to be back,” she said.
Good, maybe, but not quite good as new.
“Right now there’s this little space between my bones, and as I get older they’ll start grinding. As of right now, there’s not much pain when I play, just a little bit,” she said.
Certainly not enough to keep Gill from giving her best effort.
“I think every time I come back from an injury, I don’t think I play very scared. Obviously you never know when it could be your last game, so I don’t want to hold anything back when I’m on the field,” she said.
There would be surgery and rehab after Gill suffered the same injury for the third time, and there will probably be a price to pay later in her life. However, there would also be the opportunity to return to action before her final soccer season slipped away, and that gave her all the motivation she needed to get through her latest trial.
Gill is back with the Boyle County girls and ready to help them attempt to make another deep postseason run beginning this week, when the 21st-ranked Rebels open play in the 45th District Tournament.
“I just love the atmosphere of postseason,” Gill said. “It’s so much different than regular season. It’s do or die, if you lose you’re out. Especially since I’m a senior, if you lose, you’re done, and I’m not planning on playing soccer in college. I don’t know, really, that any of our seniors are, so it’s a big deal for all of us who’ve grown up playing together.”
Gill plays three sports for Boyle, and she wasn’t sure she would get to play any of them in her senior year when she got that familiar feeling in her right knee after a collision during the soccer Rebels’ season opener Aug. 23.
“My first thought was I didn’t know if I was going to play anything my senior year,” she said. “I hit a girl, and I got up and tried to walk, and as soon as I took I step I knew. I was pretty sure it was the same thing, because it felt exactly the same as the times before.”
The injury was a tear in the meniscus, a disc that serves to disperse friction in the knee, It was the third time it had happened to Gill in as many years, and the rehabilitation period after the first two surgeries was several months.
But this time the surgeon removed 80 percent of the meniscus, leaving her with less tissue but also with much less recovery time.
“Usually after the first (injury), the second time you tear it they’ll go ahead and take it out or take a chunk of it out, at least. But for me, it was in two totally different spots where I tore it, so they took a risk and tried to repair mine twice,” Gill said. “It was one of the first cases where they’ve ever done that. They reassured me that it would be better, because in the long run I would want my meniscus, but it obviously didn’t work. So then they said, ‘We’ll take it out this time.’”
With most of the meniscus gone there is no risk of a reinjury, so she was running within two weeks and playing again in less than six weeks.
“Obviously it was real discouraging getting hurt, but in a way, knowing they were going to take it out (and there would be) less recovery time than last time, it was almost reassuring,” she said. “The second time they held me out five or six months trying to keep it from tearing, so six weeks is almost nothing.”
Boyle coach Brian Deem said losing Gill was a crushing blow not only to her but to the entire team.
“I can’t tell you how big the gasp was when she went down against Henry Clay. All of us were just hoping it wasn’t an ACL,” Deem said. “I remember the text vividly when she told me it was a tear, she was tore up about it. ... And then I remember the text when she said she was cleared and she was coming to practice. Big smiles, big smiles on her face.”
Gill has played in six games since her return and has scored seven goals, including four in a game last week against Southwestern.
“Everything’s going good. I’m really happy to be back,” she said.
Good, maybe, but not quite good as new.
“Right now there’s this little space between my bones, and as I get older they’ll start grinding. As of right now, there’s not much pain when I play, just a little bit,” she said.
Certainly not enough to keep Gill from giving her best effort.
“I think every time I come back from an injury, I don’t think I play very scared. Obviously you never know when it could be your last game, so I don’t want to hold anything back when I’m on the field,” she said.
