The legendary Sachin Tendulkar recalled the painful tennis elbow injury phase of his glittering 24-year-old career batting for India and revealed that at one stage, he felt as if he wouldn't ever be able to play again before his wife Anjali, brother Ajit, well-wishers and friends helped him recover and make a resounding comeback.
"Tennis elbow was really bad and a number of my friends have had tennis elbow after that," Tendulkar told India Today. "When they didn't have it, they used to say how painful can it get; it can't be that bad that you can't hold a cricket bat. I said you need to experience it once, then you'll know. If you are locked inside a room, you'll not be able to open the door, it was that bad."
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"Mine was really bad, I tried everything that I could: taking an injection, numbing this in the morning before the Test match. But nothing worked and the only option was to get operated. I was pushed in the corner so badly. All my physio friends and doctors tried but then certain things need to be done."
"I felt during that period I had become impatient. I wanted to try really everything under the sun to get back on the field. And I realised after my surgery I wasn't able to pick up a cricket bat, I was really depressed," the 46-year-old added.
"I would call my friends 2o'clock in the night, 4 o'clock in the morning saying c'mon lets go for a drive I can't sleep. And they would join me and without their support, my family's support, Anjali's parents."
"Of course At home, Anjali was there who'd be constantly be telling me you know the good things that have happened in my life to focus on those things."
Besides the pain he was going through, that was the phase where Tendulkar had to also patiently bear the calls and suggestions of his retirement.
"Just the other day I was playing with some kids who were playing with plastic ball and plastic bat and it reminded me of my tennis elbow," he said. "Because I was starting to again play with a plastic bat and with that I could barely hit a ball. And my first outing after 3.5 months there were 12 year old kids stopping full-blooded cover drives that I was looking to hit at literally 10-15 years."
"I thought my career was finished, it was done. And all I would pray to god was: please don't stop my career like this, let me get back on the field again. That feeling, I remember after 4.5 months we played a one-day match vs Sri Lanka in Nagpur. I can never forget that feeling. I looked up and thanked god for that moment. This is all I wanted (to get back on the pitch)."
Forever an inspiration, Tendulkar conquered that phase like a champion and finally bid adieu to the game in 2013 with more runs than anyone else in the world and also fulfil his dream of winning a World Cup two years earlier.
(Inputs from India Today)
