Prodigies battle through
It’s funny how things work out.
A little over a decade ago, Adam Thomas and Michael Built were two of several promising Waikato footballers, training alongside Marco Rojas, attending school with Chris Wood, and learning from former All Whites Declan Edge and Mike Groom, among others.
They represented their country together at the Fifa Under-17 World Cup in Nigeria in 2009, but spent the next few years treading different paths – Built in England, where he had a decent run in the sixth-tier National League North; Thomas in New Zealand, where his efforts earned him a place in the OlyWhites for the London Olympics in 2012.
As schoolboys at St Paul’s Collegiate in Hamilton, football careers were all they ever wanted, and they were starting to craft them.
Tomorrow, they will step out for Auckland club Eastern Suburbs in Papua New Guinea in the OFC Champions League, eyeing a top-two finish in their group. Get there, and their focus will turn to making it through the knockout stages, which will follow in April and May, with a trip to the Fifa Club World Cup in Qatar in December up for grabs for the winner.
But while those are nice things to dream about – the fact that Built and Thomas are on the field at all is worth celebrating, given the serious injuries they have had to overcome.
From October 2012, when he played for Waikato FC against Hawke’s Bay United in the New Zealand national league, until August 2018, when he came off the bench for Wellington club Western Suburbs in a Chatham Cup quarterfinal, Thomas didn’t play a single game of competitive football.
As he told Stuff in 2018, shortly after his return to action, his knee had frayed apart – the result of being overloaded as a youngster.
Injuries to his hip and ankle followed, resulting in a total of four surgeries, which kept him sidelined during what should have been his footballing prime.
‘‘In the early years, I was always thinking, ‘I’ll just get over this injury, then I’ll be good to go’,’’ Thomas said.
‘‘But then they kept happening, and by the third or fourth year, I was starting to have some psychological [problems], I just wasn’t feeling good mentally, wondering ‘What’s the point? I’m not going anywhere, I’m wasting time’. That was tougher than the physical pain.’’
Compared to what Thomas went through, Built got off lightly, if you can say that about someone who ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee twice.
‘‘That’s when I’m thinking I might quit,’’ Built said. ‘‘I was doing back-toback surgeries, back-to-back rehabs, and I hadn’t even managed to play a game in between. I almost quit. I went into
coaching and I loved that – I was still getting that fix of being involved in a competitive environment.’’
Built’s return to football took place at boyhood club Hamilton Wanderers in 2017 – a winter where he ended up coaching the team as well, playing a pivotal role as they avoided relegation from the Northern Region Football League’s premier division.
He began the national league season that followed with Wanderers, but halfway through it he moved north to Eastern Suburbs, to play under coach Danny Hay, who is now in charge of the All Whites, and to take over from him as head coach at Sacred Heart College.
‘‘I realised I was actually starting to play at an all right level,’’ Built said.
‘‘Not anywhere near where I was, but the signs were promising that I potentially could get back there.
‘‘Ever since, it’s been about playing to enjoy it, but my challenge – the goal in my head – has been can I get to the level where I was when I was in the UK, and even better, hopefully.
‘‘That’s what’s been driving me to keep going, even through the niggly injuries I’ve still been having. I’m still aspiring towards that, because I haven’t got there yet.’’
Thomas returned to action at the Ole´ Football Academy in Wellington in 2018, where he reconnected with Edge, who was beginning to work with Hay on plans to team up for the following national league season.
That partnership brought him to Auckland later that year, where he played with Built for the first time since they were kids. Though he only made a couple of appearances as Suburbs won the national league last season, he stayed at the club and is now playing week-in, week-out for the first time in years.
‘‘It’s incredible – in every facet of life,’’ Thomas said.
‘‘Yeah, it’s just playing football, but it changes my mood from when I wake up to when I go to bed, so my relationships with people are better – just everything in general feels better.
‘‘When I wasn’t [playing football] it was constantly in the back of mind. So even if it wasn’t football-related, if I was dealing with my girlfriend, or my family, I was still thinking about [football] in the back of my mind, so I couldn’t be present.
‘‘But now life is great, it’s unreal.’’
‘‘I just wasn’t feeling good mentally, wondering ‘What’s the point? I’m not going anywhere, I’m wasting time’.’’
Adam Thomas