It's Always Been You

Chapter 7

September 2021 - Lyon, France

Unfortunately, before our match against Dijon, I suffered a small hamstring injury in training, and was out for around a month. It was annoying, considering I had just started out in France. Although I didn't play, I enjoyed watching the rest of the team play, with Cat scoring twice, Signe with a hat trick, and Melvine netting the sixth. Daan assisted twice, and played well also, with a near goal moment off the crossbar, although she was subbed off at half time as a precaution after potentially injuring herself during the match. Afterwards, she was also ruled out for two to three weeks, as a result of a groin strain, meaning we would have to spend a lot of time recovering together.

Throughout the upcoming couple of weeks, Daan and I had specialised recovery in the gym, considering our injuries were quite similar to the others.

"Hi," I said to Daan when she walked into the gym, on our third day of rehab, "How are you?"

"Good thank you, and you?"

"Alright I guess, wish I was playing though."

"I understand. I've had setbacks from injuries throughout the years, but I know it must be extra hard for you, considering you just recently came back from that ACL."

"Yeah, I guess. How did you know about that?"

"There was a lot of news about it, and when we played against City, you obviously weren't playing. You are one of the better players as well right now, so it wasn't exactly not spoken about."

"Did you just compliment me?" I asked, laughing, pleasantly surprised.

"Sure, if that's how you want to interpret it."

"Very funny. Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, hit me."

"Why did you leave City?"

"Why did you leave Arsenal?"

"I'll answer if you tell me."

"Alright. I guess it was a combination of things, my injury, breaking up with my girlfriend at City, and I just didn't feel as though I belonged there."

"Do you think you belong here?"

"So far, honestly, yes."

"That's nice, really nice actually. I mean left Arsenal after nearly six years of being there, so it definitely wasn't an easy decision. It was my second home, but I knew everything about it, and I achieved pretty much everything I could achieve there. Like you, there was probably a combination of reasons, and I'm thirty, so I want to try and achieve as much as possible before I retire."

"You know what you want to do after you stop playing?"

"Not really no. Maybe something in broadcasting, or coaching even. Probably for like a youth team though or something, I couldn't imagine myself in with such a big responsibility like a professional team. Do you?"

"To be honest, I haven't really thought much about retirement. I wish I could play football forever, non-stop. I love it so much and I've sacrificed so much to be here."

"I know what you mean. Growing up there weren't any opportunities for me to play as a girl, so I played with boys, and I was teased a lot growing up."

"Yeah, I quit football for a year when I was around twelve, thirteen, I had really bad anxiety and had just moved to a different country so it was really hard for me."

"I can't even imagine, I've lived in the same place for my whole life pretty much."

"Yeah, I thought I would live in Denmark for my whole life, and I wanted to play for the Danish national team, and then the accident."