Oct 7th,
2012.
It was
already 9:00 am, and three of the eight team members hadn't turned up yet. With
our match against Wipro scheduled to start at 9:15 am, I felt that I had some
rights to be fumed at them. We heard the announcement which said
our match will start at 9:15 in ground 3. I asked the ref for some small time.
We at least wanted our regular 'keeper to arrive. It wasn't long before he
came, and I informed the ref that we were all set.
We, NXP
Semiconductors, were in the quarter-finals of the Premier Cup. We were taking
part in our first ever five-a-side corporate football tournament conducted by
Bangalore Events, held in the ground opposite St. John's hospital. The previous
day, we had played 2 group matches and lost both of them. The tournament format
was such that every team would enter into a knockout. Having finished at the
bottom of the group with no points, we entered the knockout which involved the
other 3rd placed teams.
We had a
tough opening fixture against EMC², who were fresh from a recent
tournament victory. We had opened the game brightly, with me hitting the
outside of the post. But they proved to be too good for us, as they ran out 4-0
winners. Our next game was against Texas Instruments. Again, our start was good
and we went into the break leading 1-0, with the lone goal scored by me. But we
found ourselves 2-1 down in the second half and despite our best efforts, we
couldn't find an equalizer and that's the way the match ended.
We
were disappointed with ourselves. We wanted to do much better in the
next round and here was our opportunity, against Wipro. We'd seen them play a
0-0 draw the previous day. I was confident that our best performance against
Wipro would knock them out. I was sure that we had it in us to beat
them. We even revised our tactics a bit, with the major revision being my
switch of position to start as a defender. This was one game which we had to
win.
Being the
skipper, I walked over to the ref and my Wipro counterpart for the toss to decide
which team would wear the bibs. Both NXP and Wipro wore jerseys which were
majorly red; so one of the teams had to wear bibs over their jersey. We won the
toss, and Wipro had to wear the bibs. I was glad to have the number fourteen
still on my back. With the bibs, one can never say which number he gets.
The match
would kickoff soon. Two of our players hadn't arrived yet. But we had to start.
We made a huddle and I picked the team that would start. There wasn't much time
for a team talk. We were rushed, but I spoke a few words. We took our
positions, and the ref blew his whistle. The match began!
We
dominated right from the start. Tathagata and Renjith had some neat interplay
and my movement was causing problems to Wipro. We pressed against them, pushed them
all into their half. Prathap in defence and Subin in goal looked assured. These
were encouraging signs. If we could keep this on, we would win. Surely.
A little
over two minutes had elapsed. I was somewhere in the midfield, close to the
left touchline. A dropping ball, which was close to me, was there to be won.
I'd taken the ball in the air, probably had turned too. That was when I felt a
very powerful kick on my right knee. Some reckless Wipro player had kicked
me. I was in enormous pain. I fell down on the ground, clutching my knee, writhing, screaming in agony. I'd never experienced such physical pain
before. I knew I was badly hurt. I don't recollect for how long I was screaming
or for how long I stayed down on the ground. People around me must have
steadied me; the ref sprayed some Relispray and helped me to gently bend my
knee. I finally sat up, drank some water, and calmed myself. I knew that there wasn't the smallest of chances for me to
play a part in the rest of the match. As I finally made my way off the ground,
I heard a Wipro player say, "Dude, sorry." I gave the offender a nasty look,
but gave him a thumbs-up, nonetheless. Arjun took my place on the field, and I
sat down on my the ground, with my leg outstretched, cheering NXP on.
We continued to play well and had a couple of clear chances. Unfortunately, we could convert neither of them. Had I still been out there, would I have done differently? We'll never know. But Wipro too had their chances. A wasteful forward and determined 'keeping from Subin kept them from scoring. At half time, the deadlock wasn't yet broken. By then, our remaining two team members had arrived. So we had some options for substitutions. We still had a good chance of nicking this match. I urged them to focus and take the chances we get. Then I went to the ref, to ask him how the foul on me wasn't a red card offence. But he said that the offender was given a yellow card and sent out for a minute, although the latter wasn't mentioned in the rule book. I was satisfied with the punishment he'd handed out. But this was a mistake. I should've ensured that the player was shown a direct red for that vicious tackle. And I should've done that soon after the tackle. Anyway, it wasn't to be.
In the second half, neither team really threatened to score. But we continued to look quite solid. When about a fourth of the match was left, Wipro won a corner. They took the corner with just one man in the box. However, they didn't even need that man to open the scoring. An unfortunate deflection off of one of our own took the ball to its target: the back of the net. We trailed Wipro 1-0. As the game went on, we were tiring and as we pushed forward, we left gaps in the defence. Wipro made us pay for that by scoring two more goals. We lost this match as well and so we were out of the tournament. And all this, I just had to witness from the sidelines, unable to do anything about it.
As we all walked towards a shaded place to rest, I felt some discomfort in walking and bending my knee. I decided to see a doctor before heading home. As we were resting, we heard a voice through the loudspeakers asking for team NXP to collect their 2nd runners-up trophy. We collected the trophy, which I thought only brought insult to injury. Why would anyone want to parade a trophy which they won for losing all three of their matches! Some of my teammates were keen on staying back for the whole tournament. I decided to leave soon and had an intention of walking across the street to St. John's hospital to consult a doc. Vasisht offered to drive me till there and back home. So I went with him to the hospital.
As we reached the hospital, I'd developed some swelling in the right knee and I found it extremely difficult to walk. I was limping a lot and walked very slowly. We saw that the hospital was extremely crowded and so decided to go to Jayanagar Orthopaedic Centre (JOC), which was also close to my house. At the JOC, I was told that its closed on Sundays! Yeah, that day was a Sunday. But seeing the state of my swollen knee, the security guy admitted that the doctor was expected to come in later that day to perform a surgery, and that on Sundays he handled only emergency cases, not unlike mine. Calls were made to the doctor and he asked for an X-ray to be taken by the time he came. The guy who took the X-ray told me it could be a torn ligament, by the looks of it. Vasisht and I didn't think it possible for the ligament to be torn. Could I even walk, if the ligament was torn? Unlikely, we presumed. As it would take time for the doc to come, I thanked Vasisht for his help and told him I could make my way home from there.
I waited for over an hour for the doc to arrive. He saw the X-ray and twisted my leg, as he pleased. I felt a terrific amount of pain! He said that it looks like the collateral ligaments were strained and that none of the ligaments was torn. If indeed any of the ligaments was torn, he said that the leg would've swollen more than it had. He told me that there was also internal bleeding and prescribed a tablet, which was to reduce the swelling. He said a crepe bandage around my knee should help reduce the swelling soon, and that I should use an ice-pack around my knee, twice a day. He asked me to see him again after five days. When I asked him for how long I could be out of action, he said that I should recover in 4 or 5 weeks. The attendant then tied a huge crepe bandage, which extended from my thigh to the calf. Still limping, I took an auto back home.
As the doc had prescribed, I used an ice-pack twice that day. Towards night, the pain in my knee had increased enormously. I found it difficult to put any of my weight on the right leg. I managed to walk around the house, but kept the walking to a minimum. I couldn't possibly go to work the next day. So I could get up late. With that in mind, I went to sleep, oblivious to the actual state of the ligaments of my right knee.
Oct 7th,
2012.
It was
already 9:00 am, and three of the eight team members hadn't turned up yet. With
our match against Wipro scheduled to start at 9:15 am, I felt that I had some
rights to be fumed at them. We heard the announcement which said
our match will start at 9:15 in ground 3. I asked the ref for some small time.
We at least wanted our regular 'keeper to arrive. It wasn't long before he
came, and I informed the ref that we were all set.
We, NXP
Semiconductors, were in the quarter-finals of the Premier Cup. We were taking
part in our first ever five-a-side corporate football tournament conducted by
Bangalore Events, held in the ground opposite St. John's hospital. The previous
day, we had played 2 group matches and lost both of them. The tournament format
was such that every team would enter into a knockout. Having finished at the
bottom of the group with no points, we entered the knockout which involved the
other 3rd placed teams.
We had a
tough opening fixture against EMC², who were fresh from a recent
tournament victory. We had opened the game brightly, with me hitting the
outside of the post. But they proved to be too good for us, as they ran out 4-0
winners. Our next game was against Texas Instruments. Again, our start was good
and we went into the break leading 1-0, with the lone goal scored by me. But we
found ourselves 2-1 down in the second half and despite our best efforts, we
couldn't find an equalizer and that's the way the match ended.
We
were disappointed with ourselves. We wanted to do much better in the
next round and here was our opportunity, against Wipro. We'd seen them play a
0-0 draw the previous day. I was confident that our best performance against
Wipro would knock them out. I was sure that we had it in us to beat
them. We even revised our tactics a bit, with the major revision being my
switch of position to start as a defender. This was one game which we had to
win.
Being the
skipper, I walked over to the ref and my Wipro counterpart for the toss to decide
which team would wear the bibs. Both NXP and Wipro wore jerseys which were
majorly red; so one of the teams had to wear bibs over their jersey. We won the
toss, and Wipro had to wear the bibs. I was glad to have the number fourteen
still on my back. With the bibs, one can never say which number he gets.
The match
would kickoff soon. Two of our players hadn't arrived yet. But we had to start.
We made a huddle and I picked the team that would start. There wasn't much time
for a team talk. We were rushed, but I spoke a few words. We took our
positions, and the ref blew his whistle. The match began!
We
dominated right from the start. Tathagata and Renjith had some neat interplay
and my movement was causing problems to Wipro. We pressed against them, pushed them
all into their half. Prathap in defence and Subin in goal looked assured. These
were encouraging signs. If we could keep this on, we would win. Surely.
A little
over two minutes had elapsed. I was somewhere in the midfield, close to the
left touchline. A dropping ball, which was close to me, was there to be won.
I'd taken the ball in the air, probably had turned too. That was when I felt a
very powerful kick on my right knee. Some reckless Wipro player had kicked
me. I was in enormous pain. I fell down on the ground, clutching my knee, writhing, screaming in agony. I'd never experienced such physical pain
before. I knew I was badly hurt. I don't recollect for how long I was screaming
or for how long I stayed down on the ground. People around me must have
steadied me; the ref sprayed some Relispray and helped me to gently bend my
knee. I finally sat up, drank some water, and calmed myself. I knew that there wasn't the smallest of chances for me to
play a part in the rest of the match. As I finally made my way off the ground,
I heard a Wipro player say, "Dude, sorry." I gave the offender a nasty look,
but gave him a thumbs-up, nonetheless. Arjun took my place on the field, and I
sat down on my the ground, with my leg outstretched, cheering NXP on.
We continued to play well and had a couple of clear chances. Unfortunately, we could convert neither of them. Had I still been out there, would I have done differently? We'll never know. But Wipro too had their chances. A wasteful forward and determined 'keeping from Subin kept them from scoring. At half time, the deadlock wasn't yet broken. By then, our remaining two team members had arrived. So we had some options for substitutions. We still had a good chance of nicking this match. I urged them to focus and take the chances we get. Then I went to the ref, to ask him how the foul on me wasn't a red card offence. But he said that the offender was given a yellow card and sent out for a minute, although the latter wasn't mentioned in the rule book. I was satisfied with the punishment he'd handed out. But this was a mistake. I should've ensured that the player was shown a direct red for that vicious tackle. And I should've done that soon after the tackle. Anyway, it wasn't to be.
In the second half, neither team really threatened to score. But we continued to look quite solid. When about a fourth of the match was left, Wipro won a corner. They took the corner with just one man in the box. However, they didn't even need that man to open the scoring. An unfortunate deflection off of one of our own took the ball to its target: the back of the net. We trailed Wipro 1-0. As the game went on, we were tiring and as we pushed forward, we left gaps in the defence. Wipro made us pay for that by scoring two more goals. We lost this match as well and so we were out of the tournament. And all this, I just had to witness from the sidelines, unable to do anything about it.
As we all walked towards a shaded place to rest, I felt some discomfort in walking and bending my knee. I decided to see a doctor before heading home. As we were resting, we heard a voice through the loudspeakers asking for team NXP to collect their 2nd runners-up trophy. We collected the trophy, which I thought only brought insult to injury. Why would anyone want to parade a trophy which they won for losing all three of their matches! Some of my teammates were keen on staying back for the whole tournament. I decided to leave soon and had an intention of walking across the street to St. John's hospital to consult a doc. Vasisht offered to drive me till there and back home. So I went with him to the hospital.
As we reached the hospital, I'd developed some swelling in the right knee and I found it extremely difficult to walk. I was limping a lot and walked very slowly. We saw that the hospital was extremely crowded and so decided to go to Jayanagar Orthopaedic Centre (JOC), which was also close to my house. At the JOC, I was told that its closed on Sundays! Yeah, that day was a Sunday. But seeing the state of my swollen knee, the security guy admitted that the doctor was expected to come in later that day to perform a surgery, and that on Sundays he handled only emergency cases, not unlike mine. Calls were made to the doctor and he asked for an X-ray to be taken by the time he came. The guy who took the X-ray told me it could be a torn ligament, by the looks of it. Vasisht and I didn't think it possible for the ligament to be torn. Could I even walk, if the ligament was torn? Unlikely, we presumed. As it would take time for the doc to come, I thanked Vasisht for his help and told him I could make my way home from there.
I waited for over an hour for the doc to arrive. He saw the X-ray and twisted my leg, as he pleased. I felt a terrific amount of pain! He said that it looks like the collateral ligaments were strained and that none of the ligaments was torn. If indeed any of the ligaments was torn, he said that the leg would've swollen more than it had. He told me that there was also internal bleeding and prescribed a tablet, which was to reduce the swelling. He said a crepe bandage around my knee should help reduce the swelling soon, and that I should use an ice-pack around my knee, twice a day. He asked me to see him again after five days. When I asked him for how long I could be out of action, he said that I should recover in 4 or 5 weeks. The attendant then tied a huge crepe bandage, which extended from my thigh to the calf. Still limping, I took an auto back home.
As the doc had prescribed, I used an ice-pack twice that day. Towards night, the pain in my knee had increased enormously. I found it difficult to put any of my weight on the right leg. I managed to walk around the house, but kept the walking to a minimum. I couldn't possibly go to work the next day. So I could get up late. With that in mind, I went to sleep, oblivious to the actual state of the ligaments of my right knee.
We continued to play well and had a couple of clear chances. Unfortunately, we could convert neither of them. Had I still been out there, would I have done differently? We'll never know. But Wipro too had their chances. A wasteful forward and determined 'keeping from Subin kept them from scoring. At half time, the deadlock wasn't yet broken. By then, our remaining two team members had arrived. So we had some options for substitutions. We still had a good chance of nicking this match. I urged them to focus and take the chances we get. Then I went to the ref, to ask him how the foul on me wasn't a red card offence. But he said that the offender was given a yellow card and sent out for a minute, although the latter wasn't mentioned in the rule book. I was satisfied with the punishment he'd handed out. But this was a mistake. I should've ensured that the player was shown a direct red for that vicious tackle. And I should've done that soon after the tackle. Anyway, it wasn't to be.
In the second half, neither team really threatened to score. But we continued to look quite solid. When about a fourth of the match was left, Wipro won a corner. They took the corner with just one man in the box. However, they didn't even need that man to open the scoring. An unfortunate deflection off of one of our own took the ball to its target: the back of the net. We trailed Wipro 1-0. As the game went on, we were tiring and as we pushed forward, we left gaps in the defence. Wipro made us pay for that by scoring two more goals. We lost this match as well and so we were out of the tournament. And all this, I just had to witness from the sidelines, unable to do anything about it.
As we all walked towards a shaded place to rest, I felt some discomfort in walking and bending my knee. I decided to see a doctor before heading home. As we were resting, we heard a voice through the loudspeakers asking for team NXP to collect their 2nd runners-up trophy. We collected the trophy, which I thought only brought insult to injury. Why would anyone want to parade a trophy which they won for losing all three of their matches! Some of my teammates were keen on staying back for the whole tournament. I decided to leave soon and had an intention of walking across the street to St. John's hospital to consult a doc. Vasisht offered to drive me till there and back home. So I went with him to the hospital.
As we reached the hospital, I'd developed some swelling in the right knee and I found it extremely difficult to walk. I was limping a lot and walked very slowly. We saw that the hospital was extremely crowded and so decided to go to Jayanagar Orthopaedic Centre (JOC), which was also close to my house. At the JOC, I was told that its closed on Sundays! Yeah, that day was a Sunday. But seeing the state of my swollen knee, the security guy admitted that the doctor was expected to come in later that day to perform a surgery, and that on Sundays he handled only emergency cases, not unlike mine. Calls were made to the doctor and he asked for an X-ray to be taken by the time he came. The guy who took the X-ray told me it could be a torn ligament, by the looks of it. Vasisht and I didn't think it possible for the ligament to be torn. Could I even walk, if the ligament was torn? Unlikely, we presumed. As it would take time for the doc to come, I thanked Vasisht for his help and told him I could make my way home from there.
I waited for over an hour for the doc to arrive. He saw the X-ray and twisted my leg, as he pleased. I felt a terrific amount of pain! He said that it looks like the collateral ligaments were strained and that none of the ligaments was torn. If indeed any of the ligaments was torn, he said that the leg would've swollen more than it had. He told me that there was also internal bleeding and prescribed a tablet, which was to reduce the swelling. He said a crepe bandage around my knee should help reduce the swelling soon, and that I should use an ice-pack around my knee, twice a day. He asked me to see him again after five days. When I asked him for how long I could be out of action, he said that I should recover in 4 or 5 weeks. The attendant then tied a huge crepe bandage, which extended from my thigh to the calf. Still limping, I took an auto back home.
As the doc had prescribed, I used an ice-pack twice that day. Towards night, the pain in my knee had increased enormously. I found it difficult to put any of my weight on the right leg. I managed to walk around the house, but kept the walking to a minimum. I couldn't possibly go to work the next day. So I could get up late. With that in mind, I went to sleep, oblivious to the actual state of the ligaments of my right knee.
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