Reagan Connelly: Il Burattinaio Irlandese

So many legendary names in one update from that Milan team. Connelly being part of that no doubt makes him a very appealing entity!

I think we'll be soon witnessing history in the making. Superb debut for Reagan. I'm sure he'll want to keep his form on and off the pitch.

New Year new you, looking forward to an update once again this week But in all seriousness, a great debut for Reagan to carry his side into the next round. As a particular Chelsea fan would say, he has them on striiiings!

La Fine

25 May 2005, Istanbul, Turkey
It was just over half past 9 local time. As the referee blew the whistle to signal for the end of the first half, an ambulance left the stadium signalling for an emergency. The passenger of that ambulance would be me. With seconds left in the first half I was left in a terrible pain. Before I realized what happened I left the field on a stretcher, with a standing ovation going around. I glimpsed one more time at the scoreboard. AC Milan 3- Liverpool 0.

We were winning, winning well. I didn’t know any more, but I was told I scored our second goal. With our captain scoring the first and Crespo scoring the last. The trip to the hospital seemed to take hours upon hours upon hours. In reality, it was probably a few minutes. I slipped in and out of consciousness, not knowing what had happened really.

I woke up some time later, having no energy to move any part of my body. I had to gather all my strength to turn my head to Cecilia, who was asleep on the chair next to me, and to call out her name. No response. So I tried again, and again and again.

“Cecilia.” I said one more time.
Cecilia woke up and jumped out of her chair. “Re-re-reagan, you’re awake, finally.”
“Finally, what do you mean finally?”
“You were gone for 2 days, I was scared. I thought I’d never hear your voice again, see your smile again or be with you again.”
“What happened? Where am I?”
“You collided with someone during the game. You were knocked out for minutes.”

Slowly my memories came crawling back to me. I had the ball. I was running towards the goal. Someone was signalling that he wanted me to pass a ball and then……. everything went black. A blurry remembrance of one more sight as I left the stadium came back to me, before it went black again.

Cecilia hugged me tightly, before stepping back. She walked towards the other end of the bed and picked up the medical report. She gave me the notepad and left the room to get a drink. I wanted to close my eyes again, but Cecilia’s final words before leaving the room stuck with me. “You might want to, eh, you might want to read that.”

I picked up the notepad and started to read. I had a hard-time reading the poorly-written English. But I could make out a few words, the most important ones. I had a broken leg. I felt shocked, I felt helpless, I felt useless and I felt powerless. I took a while to process the information before I continued reading.

Some medical terminology was thrown into the note, confusing me beyond imagination. I turned over the page and started to read the second part. Broken neck, broken spinal cords. I was shocked and continued to read. As I read the following words, tears started to form and sadness took over as I read: “Potential paralysis, from the neck down.”

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Justice, Jim and Griffo: Most definitely
LittleLaney: Only time will tell
Scott: Most definately
MJK: And an important well as well
Jack: What a truly amazing team, no doubt
TheLFCFan: New year, new me indeed

In the blink of an eye, Reagan's life could have changed dramatically. Looking forward to reading onwards to see how this develops. At least he has a loving woman to support him through what must be a traumatic time.

Oh damn, did he collide with a monster? Horrible injuries for Reagan, especially the potential paralysis. If it is to happen, his life will have changed within a couple of days. As Scott said too, at least he has Cecilia's love to help him power through that!

So THAT was the reason Milan bottled it. All makes sense now.

A Djimi Traoré tackle for sure!

2020-01-02 23:26#264646 Jack : So many legendary names in one update from that Milan team.

That was my exact thoughts reading that update too! This is a brilliant read ImThatSybGuy I look forward to seeing how Connelly comes back from this and into management!

La Parola

17 November 2005, Zürich, Switzerland
“I want to, first of all, thank you all for welcoming me here. This means a lot, to me, my family, friends, colleagues and everyone else who enjoys the beautiful game, our beautiful game. 6 months ago disaster struck for me, I woke up in a Turkish hospital, no recollection of what had occurred. How bad it all was, was shown to me later. I had to read that not only my football career was in danger, but my entire independence as a human was as well.

I hope, that nothing like this will ever happen to anyone, not even my worst enemy. I was at a loss. My life was worthless. Completely worthless. What followed was a month of me in a hospital, back in Italy now, doctors from all over the world surrounded me, battered me to death with all kinds of tests, questions at more. All in order to wait for the inevitable.

I’m thankful each and every day my club, my wonderful club, took care of me. Paid for all of it, because without them pumping all that money, time and energy in me. I would not be here, able to stand up with the help of crutches.

I wasn’t the first, and I won’t be the last whose career, or worse life, is in danger following an accident on the pitch. We, as a community, as football fans, need to make sure we can absolutely limit the chances of this happening ever again. I was lucky, to be at a club who had the resources to help me, but if that had happened to someone at a different club or in a different club, he or she might not have been as lucky.

My wish would be to be able to completely take away every risk of something like this happening to anyone, but that’s wishful thinking. But, I firmly believe, FIFA could and should help anyone who goes through something like this. To limit all risk of someone having to end their career because of something like this.

I know it will take money, energy and worst of all time, but we should strive for better medical safety, so story’s like mine could continue to be written. I was lucky enough to get out of this, but, I will say it again, not everyone might be so lucky.

Thank you all for listening.” After a few seconds of silence before the first pair of hands got together. What followed was a standing ovation, with minute-long clapping and cheering and I, I had to wink away a few tears.

We are all Reagan Connelly

A powerful message delivered by Reagan Connelly. He ought to become a motivational speaker.

"I was lucky, to be at a club who had the resources to help me, but if that had happened to someone at a different club or in a different club, he or she might not have been as lucky"

Luke could only dream of such

2020-01-20 11:46#265560 TheLFCFan : "I was lucky, to be at a club who had the resources to help me, but if that had happened to someone at a different club or in a different club, he or she might not have been as lucky"

Luke could only dream of such

Zenit could never.

Il Ritorno

2 May 2007, Milan, Italy
International press were gathered around, crowding the AC Milan team bus as it arrived at San Siro. Almost 2 years after that collision, I would be back on that bus. After being told my football career was over, I came back. After being told I could never return, I returned.

I walked out of the bus and was greeted by an uncountable amount of journalists, piled up in front of the entrance to San Siro. It was a big game for me, my first time back in the starting eleven, but it was without a doubt, a massive game for the club as well. We would line up against Manchester United. Winning this game would mean I could redeem myself and AC Milan could redeem itself too. A win would mean we would face Liverpool FC once again in a Champions League Final, a game which brings backs terrible memories for anyone with a love for this beautiful club.

As I walked out onto the pitch, I was greeted with an immense, almost deafening, welcome back. However, there was no time to be sentimental, there was a massive game about to start and that would require everyone’s full attention.

11 minutes in, I passed a long ball forward, found Seedorf who managed to head the ball back to Káká, who found the back of the net. 1-0, 3-3 over 2 legs, just 11 minutes were needed for us to score that vital goal. After 30 minutes, a Vidic slip would be fatal as Pirlo picked up the loose ball, got a cross in, which couldn’t be cleared further than Seedorf who managed to score a second goal and put us in control of the match.

The second-half was exactly what you’d expect, we were playing with confidence as we were in control, while our opponents were getting more and more frustrated and panicky. Suddenly we were able to get a counter, Ambrosini passed the ball forwards towards me, and I started running, getting closer and closer to Van der Sar, their last line of defence. Brown and Vidic were closing in on me, but couldn’t quite catch me. I approached Van der Sar and managed to get the ball past him, as he was diving the other way. The ball went in, AC Milan 3, Manchester United 0. I was buried under my teammates and some fans as I celebrated such an important goal for me and for my team.

Minutes later I walked off the pitch, as I was substituted for Cafú, with an incredible standing ovation coming from the fans. It was an incredibly emotional moment for me, as I walked off the pitch. I was back.
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Imagine:We are all Reagan Connelly indeed
Scott:Would be an interesting career switch
TheLFCFan and Jack: Reagan>> Luke anyway