Sometime last May, as P.S. Jeena intercepted a ball in an all-India basketball tournament in Salem, she realised that her landing was not proper.
“It was on one leg, I felt my knee turn...and my ACL was completely gone,” said Jeena, the Indian captain at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, in a chat with The Hindu from Thiruvananthapuram.
She had surgery in Coimbatore the next day and was on bed rest for two months after that. Those were hard days.
“You tend to get into depression mode after an injury and a long break. And I had left my little son at home in Wayanad... emotionally it was very tough.”
The 30-year-old, who plays for Kerala State Electricity Board, made a nice return to the court at the recent all-India tournament in Karur, Tamil Nadu, where her team defeated Railway champion Eastern Railway, a side that included the country’s tallest female player Poonam Chaturvedi, 86-59 for the title. And Jeena walked away with the tournament’s best player award.
Second comeback
That was a sort of second comeback for the power forward. In March 2022, eight months after the birth of her son, she had returned to tournament action. But this time, the comeback was tougher.
“On my return after pregnancy I knew I could play like old if I reduced my weight a bit but since this (knee) injury came during a game, I was scared, there was a bit of hesitation too,” said Jeena.
“And since basketball is a contact game, that worry was somewhere within me. But after the first game, it was okay.”
That was a big relief.
“I did not want to quit basketball because of an injury, I wanted to go only after playing well. So I worked very hard. I did my rehab in Thiruvananthapuram and everybody, KSEB (her employer), my coach (Aju Jacob) and my teammates, supported me,” said the former India captain.
A few years ago, Jeena was one of its big stars in the Indian team and a regular. But now, she is not looking too long into the future.
“After the injury, instead of big goals, I have set small, small goals...to do today’s training well, to play this game well. I never thought I would take a long injury break, I was often playing for India but now all that has changed,” she explained.
“I’ve realised that we cannot think long or too far into the future after an injury...I want to play every game as my last game, that’s what I’m doing now.”
