College footballer’s unlucky break
Ben Stanley thought someone must have been standing on his forearm.
The Nelson College midfielder had just been substituted on to the field in the team’s New Zealand secondary schools football championships qualifier against Waimea when he fell awkwardly in a challenge.
His left arm buckled underneath him, snapping straight through both the ulna and radius.
‘‘I looked up not knowing what had happened. I swung my arm around and saw it outwards and straight away went into, not a panic attack, but I was just terrified at the time,’’ the 17-year-old said, looking back on the incident.
‘‘When I laid down my arm was flat on my body but it was like someone stood on it. It was quite an unusual feeling. It wasn’t until the referee came over that it started to throb.
‘‘I was surprised it didn’t break the skin.’’
The game was played at The Broads, which is situated right in front of Nelson Hospital. It took 30 minutes for the ambulance to arrive, delaying the game and extending an extremely painful experience for Stanley.
‘‘They said to me the ambulance will be in half an hour so I thought ‘this is going to be the longest 30 minutes of my life.’’’
The injury meant Stanley missed the New Zealand secondary schools football championships, which Nelson finished third at.
He said it was tough not being involved in the biggest tournament of the year but was encouraged by coach Davor Tavich not to rush back in case he risked further damage, especially as it was the second time he had broken that particular arm.
‘‘He said I’d miss too much [of the season] and it would be too dangerous so I was advised not to [go to nationals].’’
But despite missing much of the season due to the injury, Stanley has bounced back to be named in Tasman United’s National Youth League squad.
For a player whose goal is to secure a scholarship to the United States when he leaves secondary school, Stanley was excited by the prospect of testing himself at the next level.
‘‘I wanted to make up for the time I had missed really. I was gutted about it but it almost made up for it making Tasman and it’s my chance to play a lot of football over summer so I’m excited about that,’’ he said.
‘‘I just want to work as hard as I can and do the best I can do really.’’
Tasman open the season away to defending champions Hamilton Wanderers on October 15. They will play all four of their home games at Trafalgar Park.