Quotes from Student-Athletes

Theme	Subtheme	Quotes
Emotional Stress	“The Unknowns”	“The unknowns of time -- times of when I’m supposed to be hitting, times of when I’m supposed to run, jump, all that -- it’s all up in the air.” “You don’t know where you stand versus where you were, and it can get really tough.” “It’s not professional where you’re on a team and you know you’re going to come back. College is just four years.” A lot of rehab is subjective. So, my trainer will do things that my doctor in Indianapolis doesn’t approve of and… there was just this constant contradicting.” “Last year, my friend passed away from cancer on her spine. It was super sudden, just came out of nowhere. Things like that would pop into my mind.”
	Retraumatization	“...if [the injury] is going to happen again.” “I think the hardest part is moving to the right or moving to the left… Just being fearful that I’m going to do it again.” “All it took was obviously one time for me to be really fearful of that.” “I’ll have dreams that I re-hurt it because that’s how much it worries me.”
	Identity Loss	“What does that do to you as a person if you worked really hard, but you just can’t come back to where you were?” “Athletes can feel forgotten when they lose a role on the team and have been reduced to all of a sudden this athlete on injured reserve.” “I had a starting position last year, and I’m like, ‘Damn, did I just lose it due to this injury’?” “It can be hard when you’re used to just doing something every day, and then it has to stop all of a sudden.” “Watching everyone else kind of do what you want to be able to do is definitely super hard.” “I spent a whole year present, around the team, but not actively engaged with people… being there but not actually being out there.” “...joining back to a team that you felt you weren’t a part of.”
Impact on Interpersonal Relationships	Lack of Communication	“It’s been really hard, because there’s been so much back and forth to what’s even going on with my injury, and you’re not able to convey that with your teammates.” “I remember reaching out to people when they were away on tournaments to try and check in, and nobody wanted to talk to me about softball.” “None of my coaches said anything or reached out… I’ve had to text my trainer multiple times to get them to respond.” “When they don’t respond or people don’t reach out, it feels like they really just don't care about you as a person.” “I was going through a lot of hard stuff mentally, trying to get through my recovery process… It was difficult not hearing from [my teammates] or having that extra support.”
Impact on Interpersonal Relationships	Teammate Conflict	“I was terrified that my teammates were going to think I was faking it.” “When I found out I tore my ACL, as sad and as heartbreaking that it was… I kind of have validation now… This is a true injury… [my teammates] don’t have permission to talk behind my back.” “I had some [teammates] saying I was faking it and doing it for attention, and they were kind of mad at me because I wasn’t coming to practice on time, and I was in the training room rehabbing.” “I had a few teammates that were kind of going behind our backs and saying that we weren’t working as hard, and we weren’t putting in as much.” “It put a lot of tension on me trying to prove that I was a better athlete than I was showing.” “It’s easy to see from an outside perspective of they just think you're basically slacking off and just making stuff up and you're not really trying your hardest, and that's definitely impacted a couple of the ways that I interact with some of my teammates.”
Delay in Recovery	COVID-19 Restrictions	“When it came to March, he closed down, he wasn’t seeing anybody… That really set me back because all of a sudden I had to do everything on my own.” “[The doctors] said if you’re coming in from out of town, you have to self-quarantine for 2 weeks, and I cannot drive to (Major City) and self-quarantine for 2 weeks just to get in for one appointment.” “I had a 2-week notice [of my surgery options], so I had to get a COVID test… had to quarantine 14 days before I could go get surgery… that was very stressful on what places were offering COVID testing because it was still new.”
	Virtual Barrier	“Getting a sheet or text of things you’re supposed to do is not the same.” “It’s different when you’re messaging with someone versus them actually seeing you in person.” “Everything was online for how the doctors [saw me], so he was like, ‘I’m not going to fully know until I see you’.” “I didn’t really have anyone holding me accountable.” “I didn’t have my trainer saying, ‘Come at this time.’ You have to do it on your own.”
	Lack of Access	“I don’t know that I ever recovered the way that I would have if I was on my normal [rehabilitation] schedule.” “At the time where I needed to be at the trainer the most, I couldn’t.” “It was hard not being able to really see anyone for so long and not hearing, ‘Oh, you’re making progress, you’re looking good, doing better’.” “It was about two and a half months before I really had any kind of contact with any kind of medical personnel.” “The hip institute was shut down for a while when we were trying to get in earlier this year, and now they’re seeing surgery-needed-only patients.” “It’s really hard to contact her now since everything is virtually.” “[I was] coming home to just bands and I had to use a backpack filled with books to do the weight.” “I would feel pain, but I didn’t know if I could push the envelope, to keep going… because I didn’t have somebody watching me.” “I’ll come home feeling defeated, and how am I ever supposed to play in a game if I can’t get into therapy, and I can’t get better?”