I’ve been thinking for a long time to write about the most unpleasant subject in the life of an athlete, injuries, but I kept avoiding it.

It’s a sensitive subject for any of us, because nobody does want to stay away from the sport he’s been practicing as a professional, but most of them also don’t really want to talk or hear about injuries, probably out of superstition.

But now I’m injured, so I approach the subject without any hesitation.

Over time I realized that injuries are inevitable.
Tennis is becoming more and more physically demanding, so you often feel pain at some point. These are caused by more or less serious injuries. Therefore, a list of tennis players who have been absent from the circuit for a longer time due to this reason should include practically all of them.

I will tell you about my experiences related to this subject.

Now I am seriously injured for the fourth time and as always, I hope this will be the last one.

• the first time was when, at the age of 19, I had a stress fracture in my femur and I was sidelined – not even training – for around 6 weeks. I wasn’t allowed to move, so that my leg got time to recover. I was only working the upper body. I returned to the Tour after three and a half months;
• at 22, I had tendinitis in my left hand, but I continued to play with pain – including official tournaments – for three months;
• the third injury was the most serious one and affected me physically, but also mentally, the most. I had a torn meniscus in my right knee that required surgery. It was not one of the most complicated operations, even one of the easiest, but the recovery after this procedure is long. Sadder was that it happened during one of the best periods of my career. After the pandemic lockdown, in September 2020, I played in the first unofficial competition in Germany two weeks in a row, with a different system (groups of 6 players each). I had some very good wins against well-ranked players and in the second week I managed to win the group. An official tournament followed, a W25 in Prague, where I reached the semi-finals after passing 3 qualifying rounds. But after I just finished the first round match, I felt I couldn’t stretch my knee anymore. Because I didn’t feel the pain when I was playing, I continued for six more matches, three in this tournament and another three in the next one.
  I came back home and started searching. That is, for a doctor, who can give me the exact diagnosis. The first thought was that I collected fluid in my knee, the so called bursitis. I was treated for this diagnosis, and after a week I resumed training, I even played a W15, where I reached the semi-finals. The pain was still there, but it didn’t bother me too much. I continued like that, I went to two team matches in Denmark.
  After a mini-vacation I decided to go and get an MRI. Said and done, but I ran into the same problem, I didn’t know a specialist doctor who could interpret it for me. I turned to a friend who had knee surgery and that’s how I ended up with a specialist doctor. He interpreted my MRI and the diagnosis was grade 3 meniscus tear, which required surgery.
  I was operated at the Zetta Clinic, under the guidance of Dr. Ştefan Mogoș. The surgery was a success, I was only a bit in pain and three days later I started recovery with Mrs. Lupu at the Sports Medicine Institute. Everything went according to the book. After four weeks I was gradually returning to the court and in another three I was playing an official tournament.
  But returning to the circuit was unexpectedly difficult from the mental point of view. I expected to go back in as if nothing had happened, that is, to move like before the operation. It wasn’t like that at all and I was affected.
  I felt like a junior at the beginning of the journey, who had no benchmarks on the court, but on the other hand I had to win matches, according to expectations, in relation to my level before the injury. It was only after three months that I got back in form and started playing better. And it took more than a year to get back to a physical form similar to the one before the operation.

The fourth injury – and I must add, “hopefully, the last one” – is the current. The diagnosis would be a strain on the forearm muscle and tendinitis. The fact is that I have been in pain for five weeks, but every day I am better and I have hopes that I will find my tennis as soon as possible. And this time I had to look for a sports doctor and a clinic to do my recovery.

At this point I want to emphasize that although I am a performance athlete and I need to consult specialist doctors in which I can trust, every time I had to search alone or together with those close to me, for one. I had to ask everyone I know, in order to find the best solution. I went through four different injuries and each time I needed a different doctor.
I would like the Romanian Tennis Federation to have an experienced doctor who knows us, consults us, guides us, sends us to specialists, with whom he has collaborated for a long time. I think this is a must, if we are considered professional athletes.

Having gone through two major injuries, I know that there are better and worse days from a mental point of view and these states alternate. Sometimes you are optimistic, especially when you get good news from the doctors, but other times you feel that time is passing hard, you are afraid that the pain will stay there and you won’t be back on the court soon. Then all sorts of thoughts run through your head and the tennis court seems further and further away. Not to mention you see yourself falling in the rankings because you can’t defend your points.
For example, on Monday I didn’t have a good day after seeing the official ranking, which included two weeks in which I lost 28 WTA points – corresponding to a quarter and a round 16 in two W60 tournaments last year – and I had the lowest ranking since almost three years ago.

But I’m moving forward and not only did I train during this period – I don’t use the forehand, but only the backhand, slices, drop shots – but at the beginning of June I even played for my team in the German Bundesliga, although everyone advised me not to.
I passed over these, of course well intentioned words of advice for two reasons:

• the first was that I wanted to help my team, which was fighting to avoid relegation from the Second League. I was the first rocket, my absence would have disrupted the order of my colleagues ranked lower than me, in the sense that each one would have played with stronger opponents. In the end, we avoided relegation and I was proud that I managed to help as I could
• the second one was, to be honest, the financial one. Even during the period when you don’t play, you have to support yourself, not to mention treatments, medicines, supplements, which all cost money. And as I wrote in one of the previous articles, one of our sources of income is the participation in the team championships in the West.

Now, I’m recovering in Bucharest. I do physical training every day. I took a short break from tennis practice and I’m trying to convince myself that I’ll come back as soon as possible and do again what I like the most: play in official tournaments.