"It was mentally tough"

Lina Johansson's injury has stopped nagging and now sees the light at the end of the tunnel

February 14, 2015. Valentine's Day.
Lina Johansson's knee gave out.
Here is her story of the way back.

Valentine's Day.

Home game.

RIG Falköping stands as the opponent.

Lina Johansson jumped to attack. Everything was going well. But when she landed, something happens.

"We don't really know what happened. We filmed it and I've been watching the movie a billion times. I got up and attacked, and on film, it looks like I landed well. Then the knee just buckled. It was like the knee decided, 'No, I can not lift you anymore'."

"At first I thought it was just a ligament strain. But it turned out later in the emergency room that it was the ACL. In total, it was the cruciate ligament, meniscus and knee was dislocated. With all that, the cartilage was completely shattered."

"Am I ready?"

It was the beginning of a long road back. When we meet, it is the end of January and just the day before Lina has been fully released to train again.

"There was great celebration with the team," says coach Daniel Magnusson.

"I was not prepared for Daniel to say: "You should go on the net now." It was like: "Oh, really? Am I ready for it?"

But she did, and continued the day after, and at the morning workout before the team's match against Svedala. But it has been long, as I said. And not entirely uncomplicated.

"There were two operations. The first in March, where we constructed a new cruciate ligament and fixed the cartilage. Then I had a problem during the summer, the knee crackled and felt like a cracker breaking when it bent. Then it turned out that the patella was not tracking correctly. So in October I went in for a new operation."

The injury came at the worst possible timing for her. It was Lina's first season in the elitserien team.

"Mentally, it has been difficult. But when you think back, it has already been a year. Time goes so quickly, but at times it has felt like it's been a hundred years. It was fortunate that it was towards the end of last season, I would have enough time to rehab for the start of this season, but then I got a little setback. It has nevertheless been good. I see the goal the whole time."

Staying in the moment

But she do not really know where the target lies.

"We have had many goals, but it was a while ago," she says, laughing.

"The goal has always been delayed a little. Now Per (Martinsson, physiotherapist) and Daniel try not to mention it and I've stopped nagging. I think they probably have an eye on where I should fit. I work in the present and take it as it comes. Per has said that maybe in the playoffs, I could start hitting, and so I began to take some swings now and then. It is better than we thought, it feels like."

Johansson has not lost volleyball. An important part of rehabilitation has been that she has been at all practices and games. It has become a sort of therapy for her.

"Gone up and down"

"I can honestly say that it has gone up and down. Some days were harder than others. But when I came into the gym again, I know this is what I want to do. Then it's just to work even harder. After New Year, I have seen the light in the tunnel. But it is not the easiest. I would not do it again. It had been hard enough to hurt himself again and try again."

And she's got a completely different view of volleyball.

"When you get to see the game from the sideline, the focus is on how they are doing and what I can learn from it. It's a totally different perspective."

"You learn the game without knowing it. Just to be there and see it. That is why they said: "We want you to come up to the practices so you do not lose it." Such a strange thing to say when I come to the practices so I do not lose volleyball, but then I was just standing and doing squats. But it felt good when to be part of it, makes it feel like not so long ago I was here. Since I have been here the whole time."

And she will probably continue to be there.