Rusty Hinge : Soccer Standout Adamson Plans to Play for Royal After Knee Injury Cost Her a Year

Kelly Adamson laughs occasionally while discussing the longest year of her life, chuckling wryly when describing the knee injury that wouldn’t go away. And she’s upbeat as she talks about the 1994-95 high school soccer season at Royal High.

But whether she should be playing soccer at all this winter is an issue Adamson and her coach have both discussed. A senior co-captain for the Highlanders, Adamson last suited up with them two years ago as a sophomore striker. She missed last season because of aninjury to the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee while at a five-day camp for prospective members of the U.S. under-19 national team in Boca Raton, Fla.

Despite the injury, which occurred on Nov. 25 of last year, Adamson is still considered one of California’s top female players and will play at Stanford next fall. Had there been a quick and accurate diagnosis of the injury, Adamson would likely be terrorizing Marmonte League goaltenders by now, but a series of problems in her medical care has kept her out of action even as Royal begins its season.

“It was kind of a nightmare,” Adamson said about the initial injury. “I was pretty much at a full sprint and went to cut and change direction. I went one way and my knee went the other.”

The popping sensation and searing pain knocked Adamson to the turf, where she immediately feared the worst.

“I didn’t move,” Adamson said. “I knew something major had happened . . . but the trainers there misdiagnosed it and said it was a strained ligament.”

Adamson received a similar misdiagnosis after she returned to California. She underwent two months of rehabilitation and then, in January, attempted to return to practice with her team at Royal.

During the warm-up period for that first practice back, the knee gave out again.

This time a noted orthopedic doctor took a magnetic resonance imaging test of Adamson’s injured joint and told her the anterior cruciate ligament was torn and folded over. Immediate surgery was prescribed.

“Right when I found out I cried and cried and cried,” Adamson said. “Soccer is my life and I’d been out of it for two months and now it was possibly going to be a year. I wanted to get (the surgery) done right away and get it over with, but I wondered ‘Am I ever going to come back to normal?’ ”

Full reconstructive surgery was performed at Northridge Hospital Medical Center in March of this year, but Adamson turned out to be allergic to the stitches used to close the incision in her knee. Many of them popped loose and in June a less severe but separate procedure was needed to clean up what had turned into a less-than-perfect operation.

“It was time wasted and a constant battle,” Adamson said curtly.

But it appears that most of the struggles are coming to an end. Adamson endured three physical therapy sessions a week from April to July and has labored to add muscle, strength and flexibility to a leg that lost an inch and a half in circumference after the surgery.

She will not be cleared for full participation in practice until her knee returns to 95% of its former strength. It graded out at 75% in October after mustering only 35% in July, and Adamson hopes to reach the required strength level by January.

“The last thing I want to do is rush it. I don’t want to have constant knee problems for the rest of my life,” said Adamson, who wears a massive knee brace and practices many drills with her teammates, though avoiding ones involving contact.

Jennifer Nelson, who captains the Highlanders along with Adamson, knows exactly how she feels. Nelson tore an anterior cruciate ligament in June of 1992 and had reconstructive surgery, then returned to play 10 games for Royal last season before suffering another injury to the joint. She missed the remainder of the season after undergoing arthroscopic surgery.

“I think our injuries have brought us closer together because we understand what we can and can’t do,” Nelson said. “I think it would be harder for either of us if the other wasn’t there.”

Once Adamson returns to action, her concerns will shift from increasing her strength to avoiding further injury.

“You know you’re always going to have bruisers on teams who will do anything and everything to stop you,” she said. “I’m also afraid of going out there and stepping on (her leg) wrong or something stupid like that.”

Which raises the thorny question of whether Adamson should play soccer at all this season. With a scholarship secured and the knee still tender, what does she have to gain?

“That’s what a lot of people have told me, including my parents,” Adamson said. “But there’s a national team camp over spring break and I don’t want to go into it without any games under my belt. High school soccer is a chance for me to get my touch back.”

The possibility of Adamson re-injuring herself also has crossed the mind of Andy Silva, who is in his first year of guiding the Royal girls’ team after 13 seasons with the Simi Valley boys’ program.

“Sure, there’s that little thing in the back of your mind where you don’t want to see a player like that lose everything she’s worked for, especially in Kelly’s case,” Silva said.

“I would like to see her play because she’s got a lot of things to contribute to the team and it would help bring her back into the game mentally,” he said. “I wouldn’t put her in positions where she would get hammered and I wouldn’t want to jeopardize (the knee) to the extent where she gets injured again.”

Though Adamson admits she is likely to be hesitant in her first full-speed practices and then again in her first matches, those are the events she looks forward to the most. “The day I’m dreaming of is the one where my brace is off and I’m back to normal,” she said. “I know when I come back I’ll be really hesitant at first but I can’t wait for when I don’t have fear of doing anything with my knee.”

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