Whilst watching Amazon Prime's All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur series over the summer, something stuck with me.
The fly-on-the-wall documentary followed the Premier League club throughout the 2019/20 season, and viewers got an exclusive peek behind the veil to see what life is like as a professional athlete. (See trailer of the series below)
I really sympathised with the injured players during the series. They would sit alone on a treatment table, gazing through a glass window at their teammates training together. It made me question - what is life like as an injured athlete?
The main focus when a person picks up an injury is the physical impact. When footballers pick up a serious muscular injury, fans are desperate to know how long they will be sidelined for. However, through researching the topic in greater detail, I discovered that the mental implications can be just as damaging for athletes during these lonesome periods.
According to Mind, one in four people in the UK will be affected by mental illness during the course of a year. Whilst this can happen to anyone in any profession, the sporadic timing of injuries for athletes can send their world cascading into a downwards spiral.
Immediately, these injured athletes are prevented from doing their job. Imagine being a boxer who gets paid per-fight. The inability to remain active and sell tickets for upcoming shows means the athlete wouldn't even have a secure source of income.
This fascinated me, and I became eager immerse myself in the topic and hear the stories first-hand. Whilst Sidelined will shed light on the emotions of an athlete who has previously faced injury setbacks, professional psychologists and physiotherapists will also offer their expert insight.
Follow @sidelined_mmp on Twitter to keep up to date with the project's progression.