Influenza. You have to love the headaches, the coughing that will not clear, the muscle spasms that make your bones shake, and the strange way that days pass without achieving anything. Brief periods of normality following a lemsip or a bath are followed by long periods of sleep or blankly watching TV. The pain was a stark reminder of my days playing football as shin struck shin or knee struck knee. Some days it is good to feel alive and it makes a change from the "comfortably numb" feelings of adulthood. I have seen some serious injuries in my time but my own worst moment was taking a piledriver in the nuts, crawling off the pitch and projectile vomitting 2 minutes later. Maybe I was just lucky.
Footballers can get serious injuries at various stages in their careers and it often changes the way their lives pan out. Most recover but it is very rare that the level they were at is achieved again. An injury can restrict the ability of any player to produce their best so it is fascinating to watch some fantastic skills in the lower reaches of the ten tier system and wonder what level those individuals achieved before finding a safe haven later on in their careers.
I noticed that two matches were postponed last weekend due to "insufficient players". I guess that the flu hit two of the four teams involved and the F.A. sanctioned a postponement as a result. Plenty of other fixtures were completed and life goes on but to me it looks like clubs are running with smaller squads to save on costs.
And the heavy headedness returns ....
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