The crowd echoed, counting down the final seconds – five, four, three, two … Determined to make the game-winning catch, Demitri Farr jumped as high as he could, using all of his strength, reaching towards the ball. Then, “BOOM!” Demitri was suddenly knocked to the ground by the towering defender, all the force crashing down on his right knee. “POP,” an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), medial collateral ligament (MCL) and meniscus tear that will prevent Demitri from playing for an entire year. All of that work—every late-night film session, every early morning lift and every physically draining practice—gone. Just like that.

Demitri’s experience may be fictional, but serious injuries are far from made up. They are a part of being an athlete, inevitable when participating in a sport for long enough. In fact, according to the Epidemiology of Sports Injuries Among High School Athletes in the United States, a study which accounted for eight million high school athletes, 90 percent reported some kind of injury causing them to miss a game. 

But while rolling an ankle or falling on a knee happens frequently, the effects don’t just sideline someone temporarily, it can destroy them permanently—inside and out. This remains true everywhere, from high school seasons to professional leagues. No matter the level, long-term injuries can have intense repercussions. 

The first downside to long-term injuries is the physical pain and decay that is experienced the moment an athlete gets hurt. Athletes start to fall behind in their sport, as they stop playing and practicing with their team as consistently as before. Sophomore football player Rowan Bourghrious suffered a severe wrist injury in his freshman year during a scrimmage, right before the regular season started.

“[Following the injury] my athletic ability started to decrease, like my ability to catch the ball,” Bourghuis said. “It hurt to run because of the type of injury that I had. Whenever the bones had any sudden movement, it would just automatically hurt.” 

Unfortunately, Bourghuis wasn’t able to recover in time to return that same season.

“I had a splint on it for about three weeks, and then I went back to the doctor, and they said I needed a cast for four months,” Bourghuis said. 

  Similarly, senior Izzy Kletz, who played soccer during her freshman and sophomore years, tore her ACL and meniscus during her freshman year tryout.

“My speed and overall stamina were really lost because I wasn’t able to run until three months before I started [soccer] training again,” Kletz said.

These athletes experienced incredibly long recovery times; for example, a torn ACL can take upwards of six months to fully heal. With an extensive recovery time, their physical strength and ability take a large hit.

It is widely recognized that the physical setbacks from long-term injuries are detrimental to athletes; but the mental consequences are often overlooked. Redwood’s athletic trainer, Americ Alvarado, shares his frequent experiences when encountering serious injuries.

“At first, I see lots of sadness, depression, frustration and kids asking ‘Why me? It should have been somebody else.’ Then it turns into, ‘I should have done this. I should have done that.’ [Students are] bargaining, and then later on, [there is] an acceptance. And then it’s ‘What else can I do to feel better?’” Alvarado said.

This is not an uncommon way to feel after an injury. A 2023 article in the medical journal titled “Mental health concerns in student athletes after injury,” references a study that found among injured athletes aged 12 to 18, 24 percent had elevated anxiety scores and 28 percent had elevated depression scores.

These numbers are consistent with how athletes at Redwood have experienced season-ending injuries. Borghius and Kletz reported significant negative effects regarding their mental health when it came to dealing with their injuries.

“It messed with me mentally so much, I had worked my butt off all off-season and all through the summer, just to lose [any chance of playing during] the year before it even started,” Borghius said.

Kletz felt similarly after her injury, feeling extremely unmotivated. “I was really excited to try out for my high school team and bring my athletics into Redwood, so when I tore my ACL and meniscus, I felt extremely defeated,” Kletz said.

  High school athletes especially, are so involved, mentally and physically, in their sports that part of the reason for this mental decline is that they feel like they lose part of their identity. 

In some extreme cases, an athlete’s declining mental health post-injury can lead to irreversible outcomes. Morgan Rodgers was a Division One (D1) lacrosse player at Duke University who battled anxiety and depression after facing a career-threatening knee injury. She suffered in silence and tragically died of suicide at the young age of 22. Her family and close friends decided to carry on her legacy, founding the organization Morgan’s Message, which aims to spread awareness about the ties between mental health and athletics. Juliette Vick, the high school liaison for Morgan’s Message, shares parallel ideas regarding athletes’ mental health.

“Athletes may fall into some type of depression after an injury where they can’t play the sport that they love. For many, exercise is a way of self-care which helps their mental health, and when that is taken away, it can have negative effects,” Vick said.

When athletes are sidelined after a severe injury, their depression can lead to many other forms of anxiety as well, such as performance anxiety—anxiety felt before or after an activity done in front of an audience.

“Performance anxiety, or any type of anxiety, can come next. For example, if I’m a scholarship athlete at a D1 school and now I can’t play, I may be anxious about losing my scholarship. Or maybe my coach is really getting on me to play even though I’m injured, [and] heightening the pressure to play,” Vick said.

Although it is rare, there are many cases around the world similar to Morgan’s. To a non-athlete, an injury may not seem like that big of a deal, as it’s “just a sport” and “not that important” in the long run. However, to many, it is so much more than that.

Moving forward from such an experience may seem challenging, but it’s not impossible. For Borghuis, the solution was working through it and spending time with the people close to him.

“I started to focus on staying positive, talking with the people I trust, my coaches and my family, who really help me keep my head in a good place. [Also] taking care of the mental side has just been as important as the physical side,” said Borghuis.

As for Kletz, the consequence of missing her sport was enough to motivate a strong return.

“Since it happened during tryouts, I really wanted to heal and be able to try out again the next year, so I worked really hard to do all my physical therapy and reach all the goals my doctor needed me to reach so I could start playing again,” Kletz said. 

While most aspects of a long-term injury are negative, there are plenty of reasons to remain hopeful. Sometimes, injuries can change a person’s perspective, opening their eyes and pushing them harder than ever to come back and prove themself. 

“This injury was not only just for you, but it was a way to make you better, either mentally or physically. So take that as a good sign, and then the adversity that you go through will make you stronger,” said Alvarado. “This is not the end of your career because you still can be athletically successful moving on after high school. So don’t feel like this ends who you are athletically. It only helps build what you can become.”