"The surgeon told me that I wouldn't play again. He told me I'd have to walk with a stick," he recalls. "So to be out for 22 months, with all those fears, was horrendous for me. For a young man whose identity and future were tied to the game, the injury was more than physical. It set in motion a battle that would last far longer than any rehabilitation programme the fight for his mental health."
"That was the beginning of the mental health struggle, massively," says Carlisle. "Football meant so much to me. It brought me out of the council estate that socially and economically deprived upbringing. It was making my dreams come true. My career was burgeoning, and"
Clarke Carlisle snapped his ACL during a West London derby between Queens Park Rangers and Fulham on January 31, 2001 during a tackle with Rufus Brevett. The injury was diagnosed as comprehensive and kept him out for just under two years. A surgeon warned that he might never play again and might have to walk with a stick. Carlisle was 21, emerging from a council estate to England's U21s and the brink of the Premier League. The long layoff triggered severe fear and a prolonged struggle with mental health that outlasted physical rehabilitation.
Read at www.fourfourtwo.com
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