Former Arsenal youngster, Jeff Reine-Adelaide, has admitted he considered retiring from playing due to his injury problems as he lay alone in a hospital room for a month during the pandemic.
Jeff Reine-Adelaide suffered a cruciate ligament injury last year that required surgery during the pandemic [you can read more about that below].
It was the second such injury of his career.
Left alone in a hospital room due to lockdown, the 24-year-old admitted it was the hardest thing he’s ever had to go through, but he used the experience to break out of his bubble and reconnect with people in the real world with more severe problems.
Speaking in an interview with L’Equipe, The Jeff said when asked if he had thought about retiring, “Yes, I have to say that it crossed my mind, I had it at the back of my mind.
“But my mentality is that of a winner, not a loser, that’s why it only crossed my mind.
“I pulled myself back up because I put things into perspective a lot, I told myself that there are worse cases than me.
“It’s definitely hard to be injured and have to undergo an operation. But during my rehabilitation I had the time to invest myself in charitable causes and I saw children who no longer had parents, or who were disabled.
“That gave me the desire to get back there again. I’m lucky enough to be able to play football, so I couldn’t stay in that slump.
“Us footballers are in our bubble.
“We don’t see what’s going on outside. And while I was injured, I tried to reconnect with the outside world, to humanity, to see what’s happening around us.
“It did me a lot of good and gave me a lot of values. Because you can sometimes lose these values because of football.
“We don’t have the same reality as other people, we’re disconnected. My rehabilitation was good for me in terms of that, at least.
“It’s the most difficult time I’ve experienced. I was alone at the hospital for a month, without being able to have visitors.
“I was alone in my room with my pain, I wouldn’t sleep at night. I was lying down and waiting.
“So yes, it’s the worst thing to ever happen to me.”
Reine-Adelaide returned to the pitch for Lyon at the start of March and has played 188 minutes since, assisting one.
Hopefully, that will be an end to his problems and he can get back on track to becoming a quite splendid midfielder.
October 2021
Former Arsenal midfielder Jeff Reine-Adelaide is set to spend a bit longer on the sidelines with Olympique Lyon, after an injury setback.
Lyon confirmed this week that Jeff Reine-Adelaide has been dealing with pain in his recent rehabilitation sessions, and new examinations have revealed a delay in the healing process for the bone in his left knee.
The club are still hoping to get Reine-Adelaide back in action before the end of the year, just evidently not as soon as they’d initially hoped.
Reine-Adelaide suffered the anterior cruciate ligament injury on loan at OGC Nice last season, and he’s been out since early February 2021.
It usually takes at least nine months to return to match action after an ACL injury anyway, but it sounds like Reine-Adelaide is set for at least 10 or 11 months absent now.
The former Arsenal academy product turns 24 in January, and he’s made 23 appearances for Lyon since joining from Angers, scoring twice and assisting three goals.
This cruciate ligament injury is the second of Reine-Adelaide’s Lyon career. It was after he failed to retake his place in the team following the first injury that he pushed to leave for Nice for regular minutes.
That worked until February, as he appeared 18 times in a Nice shirt in a few months. But now he’s back to square one. We’ll keep our fingers crossed for the ex-Arsenal man to avoid further setbacks.