New York Giants running back Cam Skattebo says he seriously considered walking away from football last season after suffering a dislocated ankle, a fractured fibula, and a ruptured deltoid ligament during a Week 8 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, an injury severe enough that it triggered a promise he had made to himself years earlier.
Skattebo told reporters he had decided before he ever reached the NFL that if he ever suffered a major injury, he would retire rather than try to fight his way back. Seven games into his rookie season, that exact scenario played out on the field in Philadelphia, and the decision he had only imagined suddenly became real.
A dark first month
“The first month was kind of like, ‘Damn,’” Skattebo said, describing the stretch immediately after surgery as the hardest part of the whole process. He said he spent roughly 14 hours a day at home during that period, largely alone with his thoughts, trying to work through what the injury meant for his career and searching for some sense of happiness in the middle of it.
That kind of isolation is common after a serious sports injury. Athletes who go from a packed practice and game schedule to weeks of forced rest and rehab often describe a similar drop-off, losing not just their routine but the daily structure and locker-room camaraderie that came with it. For a rookie still getting to know his new teammates and city, the adjustment was compounded by uncertainty about whether he would ever play again.
Retirement talk fades as recovery progresses
By the end of the season, Skattebo said those retirement thoughts had faded. He pushed through rehab and is now heading into his second NFL season with the Giants, aiming to reclaim the role he had carved out as a rookie before the injury cut his year short.
Skattebo had emerged as a notable contributor for New York in his first professional season before the injury, and his return gives the Giants back a running back they were counting on. His willingness to talk openly about how close he came to quitting the game, and how bleak the days right after the injury felt, offers a rare unfiltered look at the mental side of recovering from a major sports injury, a part of the process that rarely gets the same attention as the physical rehab itself.
Sources
Yahoo Sports: Giants’ Cam Skattebo Considered Retirement
Sports Illustrated: Cam Skattebo Retirement, Injury, Comeback
amNewYork: Giants’ Cam Skattebo Considered Retiring
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