332 days.
That’s how much time has passed since the Creighton men’s soccer team defeated Drake on the road in a 1-0 contest. At that point the Bluejays were 9-1-1 on the season and had outscored opponents 18-5. Over the final 11 matches they went 7-2-2 and outscored opponents 14-6. Not much of a difference when you consider how much tougher the schedule became, but it can also be chalked up to the fact that star freshman forward Ricky Lopez-Espin tore his ACL, his MCL, and his meniscus in the match against Drake.
Lopez-Espin had been having a strong season as one of Creighton’s main attacking players prior to the knee injury. He scored three goals, including game-winners over No. 20 Stanford and Santa Clara, but it all ended abruptly on that Tuesday night in Des Moines, Iowa. What followed was months of grueling rehab to get back on the field as quickly as possible.
“It was mentally draining,” Lopez-Espin said of the recovery process. “I went home during Christmas for 10 days, but I didn’t go home for spring break or summer. I just stayed here and worked at it every day. It was definitely tough. It was something I expected, but I didn’t expect it to be as tough as it was.”
Ricky Lopez-Espin battles for possession in a match against Michigan. (Photo by Adam Streur/WBR)
Lopez-Espin went through about five hours of rehab each day. He would find time in the morning and in between classes, then go another hour before practice and again for two more hours during practice. He eventually made it back to playing form. He traveled and played with the team during their off-season trip to Germany. He participated in fall camp without a knee brace, even scoring two of Creighton’s eight goals in friendlies against Bradley and Northwestern during the preseason.
Despite that, he is still working his way back to being the type of player he expects to be on the field, a process that at times has proven to be a mental challenge for the sophomore from Miami, Florida. Head coach Elmar Bolowich and his staff, along with Lopez-Espin’s teammates, have tried to guide him through it.
“Sometimes you’ll see it in his body language, how frustrated he gets,” Bolowich said. “At least I see it. You just have to remind him not to be so hard on himself, and that these things take time. He’s just a good kid, he’s a team player.
“He wants it bad for himself, but he also wants it bad for the team. He knows he’s needed. He knows he’s the one who can make an impact, and when you have that and it doesn’t happen then obviously you’re getting frustrated about it. It’s a natural reaction. All we can do right now, and the team as well, is give him our support and say, ‘hey, just keep plugging away.’
“I know he is frustrated, but again he has to just be patient with that and work hard, plug away, look for his opportunities, and sooner or later it will be there,” the Creighton head coach added. “Once it starts clicking I think he will be right back where he left off.”
Ricky Lopez-Espin is happy to be back on the pitch. (Photo by Adam Streur/WBR)
Lopez-Espin says he is beyond the point of thinking about the injury in a fearful sense. That’s not something he feels he can control, so he’s instead focusing on the things he can.
“I’m not worried about if I’m going to get hurt again,” he said. “If I do that’s up to the guy upstairs. He’s the one who is looking over me. What I do think about is trying to improve every single day, and trying to stay positive. That’s what is going through my head, just trying to stay positive throughout everything.”
In an effort to strengthen that positive outlook, he met with sports psychologist Jack Stark on Thursday. That meeting, Lopez-Espin said, was a productive one.
“He just told me to stay positive and just visualize, so I’ve been trying to work at that, and not try to think about it,” Lopez-Espin said. “Just have fun, enjoy myself, and be happy to be playing again.”
Finding out if he’s happy to be playing again is not hard to see. His eyes widen and he just smiles when he thinks back over how much time he spent off the field, working to get back into proper condition. He says it was hard to describe how he felt when he finally stepped onto the turf at Morrison Stadium for the team’s season opener against Michigan and looked out at the 4,838 fans in attendance. The result of the hard work involved to get back on the field is not something he has taken for granted.
“I’m just thankful. Just thankful that I can play again, and also in front of everyone that was there it was just amazing,” Lopez-Espin said of his first official game back as a Bluejay. “It’s a feeling that you can’t really describe. I don’t wish the injury upon anyone, but having to go through that and to have that feeling of being back, it was just surreal. It was awesome.”