Freddie Ljungberg Quotes

I've got no hamstring in the middle. I'm basically running on two hamstrings on my right leg and three on the other. That injury has probably changed my whole career. I've been compromised from the age of 19.

The physio side probably stemmed from the knocks I got as a player.

I got injured at the Olympic Trials in 2000. I could not jump. I could not walk on my leg properly. I couldn't bend my knee. I couldn't straighten it.

There have not been many occasions when I have bowled pain free and generally you are not 100 percent.

It's tough to play with an injury.

I went from being very athletic, one of the best guards in the NBA, to barely making it. No speed, no agility. I had to change how I played because I couldn't exercise or train because my knee constantly hurt.

The operations were big ones, so I knew it'd take a lot of hard work. It's hard, you know? You're in the gym for hours on end doing strengthening exercises, and that's just so you are able to start running again. You can't even think about getting on the pitch to start with.

Every time I sprinted 100 per cent, my hamstring broke. But I knew if I didn't sprint 100 per cent, I could keep on playing, so that's what you do. I was just lucky it was discovered in America and I haven't had one problem since. I feel I can run past people again and that feels nice.

At the combine we went through medical exams from every team, the most extensive physicals I've ever had: blood tests, MRIs, heart monitors, everything. Because of my injury teams really paid attention to my lower body.

I mean, every player is hurt every year, so that's not really an excuse for everything.

Ask any athlete: We all hurt at times. I'm asking my body to go through seven different tasks. To ask it not to ache would be too much.

I was able to do Classics, the U.S. national championships and the Pan American Games and feel like I improved with each meet, but I was still struggling with a lot of residual pain from the two surgeries.

The return is one of the hardest shots to make when you come back from injury.

There has never been a great athlete who died not knowing what pain is.

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

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.

As a former football player who has carried a football more than 4,000 times, trust me, I did not go into ballroom dancing with my body being 100 percent, with no aches or pains or ailments coming with me. When you're dancing, you're doing stuff that your body's not used to, and so you start to aggravate those old injuries.

I didn't think I was going to play that day. I'd have to thank the training staff for getting me on the field that day. They made a bigger deal than I thought it was.

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

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.

My knee was torn up. I tore every ligament in my knee. It was a very, very bad injury. I had to do what the doctors told me to do, and I did that. The next year, I came back and led the league in rushing.

I've played in Test matches before after injury without first playing a county game or warm-up of some sort.

Before I got injured, football was very easy, I didn't have to work out.

One thing the fans got to understand is that I missed two years, and we took it really, really slow, and we made sure everything was good, and my foot has been great.

It's never fun to be injured; it's always boring being on the side. You want to go back to help the team and to be able to play.