Enemy Lines (completed)

25

Normally sleep heals everything. Well not this son of a bitch. I mean I did everything I was told to do, sleep with it elevated, wear a compression sleeve, I mean the shit the doctors told me to. And somehow this damn thing hurts worse today then it did yesterday.

The swelling had gone down which was a good thing but the idea of walking on it made me want to just cut the damn thing off.

I pushed through the pain and showered before getting dressed in golf shorts, a uswnt t-shirt, and vans. I put on a compression sleeve under my brace to make sure I get adequate blood flow.

Once I get the kids and I into the meal room I meet with Hannah asking her for crutches.

"Sure give me a minute to go grab them and then o can take a look at your knee."

"Alrighty." I respond sitting down. I don't think I've ever wanted to relapses so bad. The pain made me want to slam my head into a table, or a car door; you know what I want someone to just slam into my with a car. I knew it wouldn't be a true relapse as it was medically prescribed but it was my drug of choice most days so.

Hannah comes back with the crutches and hands them to me. "If it's okay with you could you please take off the brace and the compression sleeve?"

"Yeah sure." I offer up and do as she instructed me to do so.

She feels around for a good 2-3 minutes and bends my knee in all these different ways after concluding her analysis she gives me her diagnosis. "No tear probably a mild sprain. Two weeks crutches no weight. After that if it's still causing you trouble we will go the ER."

"So I can't workout?"

"No bearing weight on that knee."

"Okay thanks." I say pissed off.

Working out was the only thing that got me through my shit now I was supposed to deal with all of this without working out.

Slowly the rest of the team filters into the meal room. Kelley approaching me.

"Hey I thought you said we would hit the gym this morning?"

"I'm sorry I completely forgot about that. I'll take you to the gym tomorrow. My knee might've gotten worse after walking on it for so long. I'll run you through the workout and adjust when needed but I can't put any weight on it."

"Okay. Sorry about kinda bombarding you this morning I thought you had blown me off."

"Look No problem. Yesterday I truly thought that I had just over worked and that by the time I work up it would be fine. I underestimated my injury."

"Okay well I'm gonna go grab some food."

"You do that Ohara."

Once Kelley leaves Tobin approaches. "You good coach?"

"Yeah."

"What's with the crutches?"

"I messed up my knee a little worse then I thought yesterday. I will be attending today's training session but won't have an active role in it."

"Ight." She walks back allowing me to talk to my kids and the staff. I brief all of them at once. My kids not really caring. They are used to this normally it isn't as bad but they are used to me having to take it easy for a day or two because I tweaked it.

Nearing the end of breakfast I crutch towards the front of the room. "I just wanted to update you all on my knee. We think it is mildly sprained but because of my past injuries we are taking extra precautions. I will still be attending all practices but will have very little to no active role in them."

They all just nod. "The bus leaves in 25 with or without so finishing up eating and get dressed. Today is weights. Also let's see if anyone can beat my bench press record?" I joke knowing none of these girls are pressing 315 for reps.
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Time skip 2 weeks

"Alright Bryn hows it feel?" Hannah questions While I slowly walk around the room.

"Decent. Still sore but not painful."

"Then you are off crutches and can bear weight. I would just recommend taking another week off of squats and other leg workouts."

"Ight. I'm just happy I can go to the gym now. Even if I can only use cable machines I can at least lift.

I leave the ats room and walk to dinner. The girls are doing well. Training was getting more intense the closer we got to the tourney. I tried my best to keep it light hearted while accomplishing everything I needed and or wanted to be done. Dawn was impressed that my plan was working and we both came to the agreement that my plan would stay even after the net was off.

Dawn had truly thought that Carli, Becky, Kelley, and a bunch of other veterans on the team had reached their potential. I was proving her so wrong and it felt so good.

As I was approaching the meal room Christen pulled me aside. "Hey can we talk?" She sounded serious.

"Yeah. We can talk here or in the conference room?"

"Here's great."

"Okay."

"Uhh I just wanted to tell you that my mother had passed not to long ago and I'm struggling."

"Have you talked to Nicholas about this?"

"Yes."

"Okay I will do whatever I can to help you and if that means a late night talk or even a day off from practice please reach out to me and i will make sure your demands are met. Anything else?"

"Umm no. I just wanted to tell you because I haven't been preforming so well as of lately."

I start to chuckle. "I'm sorry did I say something wrong?" She questions a little peeved.

"No I'm sorry. It's just that your stats from this week compared to this week last year are miles between. You not o my have performed better on your fitness test but also during practice. We still have the practice tapes from the camp last year and to even compare you to them is wrong. You look like a totally new player then the Christen Press from last year."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Tomorrow since it's an off day me and my staff have scheduled a meeting with all of you to go over your 1 year progress reports. Normally we do this at the beginning of the year in January but since I've stepped in and have reworked most of the set plans we are going to do progresses reports."

"Okay. Well umm thanks for listening."

"I'm always here for all of you."

"I know and I can not even put into words how much that means to me and the rest of the girls. Sheik we always got along with the staff you could always tell the divide between staff and players. With you here it seems that the divide is almost non existent and has helped make players A-feel more comfortable and B-helped bring us closer together as it's not a make sure coach doesn't here that."

"I'm glad I could help change this team for better."

"Well I'm grab some dinner."

"Ill be right behind you." We walk towards the meal room and grab dinner before taking our respective seats.

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Filler chapter since it would've taken a fucking decade to get here at the pace I was going. I'm really not going to cover any of the games leading up to the World cup since I can. Also because I will be without a laptop for the rest of the month and trying to do all that on phone just doesn't sound fun.