Sean Longstaff Quotes

I tore my ACL playing basketball.

I've had several broken bones and sprains throughout my career, but the one that really changed things was when I wrecked in 2008 during a Pro Snocross competition. I was thrown from my machine and landed on my left leg and caused a 180 degree hyperextension of my knee joint.

Am I ever going to be able to play football again? What's going on with my career? I was just thinking things like that. You've got tears going down your eyes. You've got your trainers right there and my parents right there. I was just thinking, "Is this it?" I didn't know what a knee injury was. I'd never felt pain like that.

I had broken my nose while practicing. Also I got a fracture on my shoulders, knees.

How I hurt my knee was doing something so minimal that it was a little worrisome. To try that motion and others again, after the injury and after surgery, made you worry a bit.

I struggled quite a long time with my backhand, which was one of my best weapons before my surgery. It took me a long time until I regained full confidence in it again and only tried to keep the ball in play at the start of the '09 season.

But in 2000, the injuries really started to kick in and my elbow gave a lot of problems. At the end of the year I had to take 20 months off before I could come back into the game.

Having a normal knee would make life a lot easier.

I hurt my left knee playing left tackle. I had surgery on my right knee.

After 13 years of hard landings in gymnastics, one ski run had delivered the biggest injury of my career.

I screwed my knee up once because I fell off the stage.

My knee was torn up. I tore every ligament in my knee. It was a very, very bad injury. I had to do what the doctors told me to do, and I did that. The next year, I came back and led the league in rushing.

I shattered the heel in my good leg, and it was an extremely bad injury. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to snowboard again.

You just never know how back injuries are going to affect you.

It was tough to quit football. But after I was injured, I didn't want people paying money to see only half a John Matuszak.

I've had 30 hamstring tears.

I went from being very athletic, one of the best guards in the NBA, to barely making it. No speed, no agility. I had to change how I played because I couldn't exercise or train because my knee constantly hurt.

I jumped off my lift, smashed my knee pretty good - my meniscus and everything. So I had to have surgery.

My knee injury was something serious. To go six months before I could even jog is pretty serious.

It's hard to see a player go down and it's hard to see him get hurt.

In terms of timing, there's never a good time to get injured.

The moment when I broke my leg, when I realized my leg was broken, I thought my career was over.

Who knew I was blowing my Achilles?

I was kind of at the turning point in my career with my knee. I was dealing with the struggles of trying to make the transition back on the court consistently and not a game here, then sit a game.

I've had four knee surgeries in my career. I just don't do small injuries. The highs of winning are always balanced out by the lows of being injured and missing games. There was a time when I was out for nearly a year, having already been out for six months with another surgery before that.