So a couple of weeks ago I was running to get to the ball (we’re playing football here by the way) and so was one of their players (coincidentally called John). I knew I had more pace than him but that didn’t help much when I tripped over thanks to my grippy new boots. My toe caught and my entire body weight went onto my ankle bending it inward in a way that feet aren’t supposed to be able to bend. I didn’t hear any snapping (a good sign) but it was monumentally painful (also a good sign, but at the time a bad sign).

There was no way I could play on so I limped off, got some ice onto it and drove home thanking my lucky stars that my car is an automatic. So here I am on a Saturday afternoon watching football on the tv, laptop on my lap, lying on my sofa. Plenty guys my age would love to spend their Saturday doing this but not me. I’m the active sort and I’d probably have been out on my mountain bike or hiking today if my ankle wasn’t wrecked. This is what it looked like when most of the swelling had gone down:

The day after I injured it my whole foot started to swell up like a size 3 football and some black and dark red patches began spreading along the inside and outside of my foot. At this point my girlfriend decided to start being sympathetic (up until then her bedside manner left a lot to be desired) by suggesting we head to casualty and get it x-rayed to see if it was broken. A couple of hours later and we discovered that it wasn’t – having been told that a sprain can often be worse than a break!

I hate being injured. You’re fit, having a run of good form, doing lots of action-packed things, everything’s going well and then suddenly you’re back to square one. I’d been doing a lot of work on my road bike and was starting to see some improvements there too but now it’s all gone to the wall. I’ve been here before thanks to breaking my toe (3 months out), damaging my shoulder (2 months out) and knee ligament damage (9 months out) so I know what to expect in terms of the road to recovery. Oh, all those injuries were while playing football by the way.

It’s just a bit frustrating – especially when I keep having dreams about running! I’m sure some people have nightmares about it but I love running so I was disappointed to wake up and only be able hobble around the house. I think my footballing says are numbered – another injury like this and I’m throwing in the towel, it’s a dangerous game! Maybe I’ll take up BASE jumping instead, less injury worries.