The Pop that I never heard

I broke my ACL while playing in a Chicago Soccer league. We were playing the semi finals and I was late for the game. I took the field as soon as I reached there and hence didn't get a chance to warm up.

Within 15 minutes of the start of the game. I reached for the ball with my left leg, but my opponent removed the ball before my foot could reach the ball. I landed on my left foot. As I was expecting to move the ball forward with my leg and move ahead, my body was following my leg. When the ball was removed, my foot landed on the ground with my whole body behind it. Due to the forward momentum of my body, my foot got twisted and resulted in the initial ACL injury.

Most people hear a pop when they have an ACL tear. It happened so quickly that I didn't even know what happened. At that time, I thought that it was just a sprain in the leg and would get better in a day or two of rest. I couldn't put my foot on the ground and I remember a guy asking me if I heard a pop. He said it could be ACL injury, but I was sure it was just a minor sprain and nothing serious.

I stayed on the field cheering my team. planning to come come back for the finals. (Though we lost that match and reach the finals). Later after the pain increased that night and stayed on for two weeks, I realized that it was something serious. That was the first time I did some research of ACL injury and just the thought of surgery scared me to hell.

Of course, I was all set to go to HEC, Paris for a study abroad and hence didn't want to ruin my French vacation...er I mean study abroad. So, no surgery for me.