Nick Tsaroulla reflects on a near-fatal car crash that nearly ended his life and threatened his football career. After surviving a head-on collision in 2017 while driving to Tottenham training, he endured months of pain and missed a year of playing time. Tottenham released him in 2018, but he returned through Brentford’s B team and later built his career at Crawley Town. He now plays for Notts County and approaches the League Two play-off semi-final second leg against Chesterfield with gratitude. With a sell-out crowd at Meadow Lane, he aims to “soak up” the moment and embody team spirit to push Notts back to League One after an 11-year absence.
"“It's a short career, a short life,” he told BBC Sport. “Life can be taken away in any second, football can be taken away in any second, which it was for me - and then you realise how much you miss it and you just want to enjoy every second of it. ”That's exactly what we're going to do. That's the spirit we embody as a team. That's what we did in the first leg and we're going to go out and do that again in the second leg.”"
"“Notts is such a big club and it's such a lovely moment to play - you have to cherish it. ”One day, in 30 or 40 years' time, hopefully, I can look back with my kids and grandkids later on and tell them stories about the experience that I got to live through, playing in a play-off game like this against Chesterfield in a derby.”"
"“He survived the crash but endured months of pain that kept him out of the game for a year and threatened to end his career before it ever really got going. Spurs released him in 2018 but he found his way back into the game with Brentford's B team before going on to thrive at Crawley Town”"
Read at www.bbc.com
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