“Football helped me smile again”: The Colombian credits sport with her mental recovery after a serious accident

highlights

• Sahily Carrero lost her arm in a horrific accident at work in late 2020.
• She says playing football again is “like therapy”.
• The Colombian now coaches a mothers’ team at her club.

When Ms Carrero decided to return to the soccer field in Australia, she said she was overcome with fear, not to mention feelings of insecurity and condemnation.She says her mental health has deteriorated after she lost her arm in an accident at work.However, she says football has proved key to her improved mental health, forcing her to “live in the moment” so much that she sometimes forgets her disability entirely.

“I only played about 15 minutes in my first game and I cried with happiness after the game because I felt that everything had stopped, that everything was the same as before (the accident), that nothing (to me) had happened. ” Ms. Carrero told SBS Spanish.

“I enjoyed the moment. Everything was fine, there was peace, tranquility, everything was perfect.”The Colombian student from Melbourne says she always knew it would be difficult to play football again after losing her arm.

“I was very scared because my English wasn’t the best. Also, mentally, people see you without an arm and they say, ‘You’re not going to do it right.’ But in my mind I knew I loved it. I’ve been playing football for many years and I could do it,” she said.

The young Colombian arrived in Australia in 2020 and was delighted with the progress she had seen in her older brother, who had been living in the country for some time. Ms. Carrero says that like many other international students, as soon as he set foot on Australian soil, she began studying and looking for work. With her limited English, she was able to get a job as a cleaner a few weeks later, she said.But because the income was insufficient, she kept looking for work and finally secured a job in a food processing plant in Victoria.

However, she was barely three months into her new job when she was in a serious accident that trapped her arm in a machine, she said.

I woke up in the hospital and saw my bandaged arm but I could see my fingers. In my mind I thought: “Everything is fine, it wasn’t bad, they saved me”. I couldn’t remember many things. I still don’t remember.

Sahily CarreroHowever, after months of surgery and recurring infections, Ms Carrero was told by surgeons that her arm would have to be amputated to save her life. “At the time I was suffering a lot in the hospital and I was in a lot of pain, so I said, ‘Yes, I want to live. I do not care. Take it off…take it off!” she said.Ms Carrero’s operation lasted more than 11 hours and even then it was still a breeze due to more infections. A few weeks later she said she was over the worst, but a long road of recovery, therapies and treatments awaited her. She says she lived in the hospital for a few more months trying to adjust to her new reality. She says her overwhelming urge was to return to Colombia to recharge with family and friends. However, as it was an accident at work, she was effectively tied to Australia for ongoing treatment and therapy, so she reluctantly moved in with her brother and began her outpatient journey.

Seven months after the accident, her visits to the hospital have become less frequent, and she says she can start planning what to do with her life.

I think that made me very strong emotionally and mentally because when you face death you feel alone and empty. In this vacuum I rebuilt myself.

Sahily Carrero rebuilds her life after losing her arm in a work accident. Credit: Delivered

“Football came to my rescue”

Sport has always been a part of Ms. Carrero’s life. She said she had played football for clubs since she was a child.Being on the field forced her to be in the moment and focus on being happy. With that confidence, she turned back to football, except now in Australia. A few months ago Ms Carrero ran to her first game with a women’s team from Fawkner Soccer Club north of Melbourne.

“Even though I had a hard time walking, all I could think was, ‘Thank you, thank you!’ I was very thankful because I said, ‘I’m alive and I’m here playing a game that I love.’ It was also a very beautiful thing because a lot of people saw me and I imagined they were like, ‘If she can do it, I can do it,” Ms. Carrero said.

The young Colombian says it hurt her at first to meet the looks of other players or spectators who were watching her curiously, even strangely. She said she cried a lot at night, but little by little she managed to turn those curious looks into motivation to show that she could play like any other player while inspiring people.

But the moment of her greatest personal victory came when she scored her first goal on an Australian pitch, she says.

I cried and was thankful for everything that was going on. Because despite everything that happened to me, I said, ‘I’m here and I’m doing it.’

Sahily Carrero.Ms. Carrero is building a new life for herself. A little over two years after her accident at work, she somehow manages to work on her recovery every day, attend therapy appointments, attend soccer practice sessions and, if that wasn’t enough, become a coach and inspiration for a group of moms who play soccer . She says she is currently looking for a job where she can help other people, be it in sports or with people with disabilities. However, she does not rule out playing in a higher league or becoming the coach of a women’s soccer team in Australia.

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