Cardiff City star Ebou Adams has opened up on the ordeal of his horrific injury he sustained at the club before even kicking a ball in anger.
Adams had signed on the dotted line from Forest Green Rovers last summer on a free transfer, a move that was heralded as a bit of a coup at the time.
But it would go pear-shaped – very pear-shaped – very quickly for the midfielder in his first pre-season game of that summer campaign against Cambridge United.
Adams was badly injured without having even touched the ball – and what would follow was something never seen before when it comes to footballing injuries.
“I had a good season for Forest Green, played the first pre-season game and hadn’t even touched the ball when I went up for a header and someone hit me from behind at the most vulnerable point,” Adams remembers.
“It managed to tear my pec and the tendon completely off the bone, which we all thought was a shoulder injury at first. It was weird. I asked how many injuries like this happen in football and they said ‘none’. I went and searched who else had got this injury: Triple H from WWE! That says a lot about the injury.
“I used to watch wrestling a lot when I was younger. Don’t tell my mum because I used to jump off the bed.
“It was a tough year watching the boys play and seeing comments like: ‘Where is Ebou at?’ It does hurt and it is scary because I think: ‘Am I ever going to play again?’
“But I am fully fit now and hopefully I can have a full season, fully fit.”
Adams was an unused substitute in the 2-1 defeat to Leicester City on Saturday; it took almost a full year for the star to get back to full fitness, having suffered a setback along the way.
His recovery was an arduous period which left him feeling “lonely”.
“I’ll be honest with you, it was a lonely time,” added. “To sign for a club and to not kick a ball and get injured, that’s hard.
“You don’t get to build as much of a relationship with your team-mates. They’re enjoying themselves on the pitch and you can’t really get involved in the conversations. You’re in the gym with the physio and strength and conditioning coach. I get frustrated. It’s scary because you feel like you’re in a ghost town. You feel like a nobody. But you want to be a part of something. You don’t want to be remembered as the person who was injured.
“My family helped me out and my physios helped me out. I’d like to give them massive praise because I probably wasn’t easy to handle. I was pretty determined to get back to where I wanted to be.”
He doesn’t particularly want to dwell on it but Adams says the setback was tough to take after such bad luck before he had even made his full debut for the club.
“It hurts my head going back to it,” he said. “That week I was meant to be involved against Huddersfield. As I was about to train, my knee just went. It was a weird injury – the knee cap chipped. I don’t know how it happened. I didn’t want surgery. I wanted to get back playing. We had to do surgery in the end.
“With the situation we had last season, it’s hard to come back in. I would have been more of a hindrance than a help.
“I’ve learned a lot. I’m a guy who enjoys my football and, although it’s only been two games, I’ve really enjoyed it.”
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