C. J. McCollum Quotes

I had a hard time at Chelsea mainly because I was injured much of the time. Every time I recovered from one injury I seemed to get a new one and it set me back again.

Even when I was young, playing college football, and I injured my knee, I bounced right back.

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.

I was on the sideline with a knee injury and when I came back, I wanted to play at the best level I could. And that's the case for a lot of players, they want the chance to play against the best competition.

The only way to get a three to four-month break would be to tear a tendon or a hamstring or something like that.

I made the varsity team as a freshman at 15. Then, I tore a tendon and never fully recovered. I was a shortstop, then third baseman, then second baseman.

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.

Up until the age of 16, I was very focused on sport - I played a lot of football. Then I tore my ACL and had to stop playing.

Yeah, two or three weeks ago I was fairly snappy. I've never been injured before and this year it feels like I've hardly played.

I don't want to think much about my injury in Australia. That phase is history.

Any injury is tough, and it is a little bit tougher when it is the hand that you have to catch with, but it is football man. I wouldn't have it any other way.

I got injured just before we filmed 'Ninja Warrior,' which stopped me playing football with my mates. I haven't played football since. I'm crocked now, my back has gone and I feel like my body has packed in.

It is terrible to be injured; you want to return to playing football.

I was real positive when I got out of surgery. I was going to attack rehab, do the little things and become a better person, a better player mentally. Once I come back, I know it's a long process, but I think I'll be better for it.

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.

I mean, I think I'm doing a lot better than other people that have had shoulder surgery in their careers. Some people have never come back.

I didn't make it a priority, and as a result my knee didn't heal to the extent it should have.

I mean, coming into this season I was just hoping to come back, stay healthy and help the team.

I ran track in high school. I was a fragile young man, personally and physically. I tried football. That didn't work out; I broke my collarbone. But I always loved running.

My own basketball background was ripping up my ACL in a lawyer's league.

Sophomore year, I got hit in the stomach playing football, and I was out of school for four months. I was in the hospital for two and then out of school for two.

Injuries is a part of a sportsmen life; you have to live with it. You can't be down with that; it is not gonna help you.

I knew that maybe I couldn't be playing again, but I just wanted to get in physical shape.

I got injured when I was a kid, and it prevented me from becoming a footballer.

I did enjoy football, but the injury factor for me, you know, I had so many issues. I don't know how long my career would've been.