Don’t know whether my foot is sprained or broken, but I’m tossing the cleats in my closet. I want to get healthy for golf season.

I play soccer on a men’s over 30 soccer league. I also play with a local club that runs pickup games twice a week. The league plays indoors through the winter. The club plays outdoors through the spring, summer, and fall.

I play mostly for exercise—I have virtually no skill. It’s a lot of fun, but I’m not real committed to the club… in warm weather, I try to play golf two or more times a week, and it’s hard to get enthusiastic about adding three or four hours of running on top of that.

I’m much more committed to the soccer league because golf opportunities are rare in the winter. It’s very cool to be able to play soccer on a grass-like surface even as a blizzard swirls outside.

Yesterday, my team played its 22nd game of the season. We were holding our own: we’d had a half-dozen solid scoring opportunities that didn’t pan out, and we were down by only one point.

I was racing to shut down a breakaway attack on our goal, and somehow I jammed my heel hard into the turf. Something popped, and I felt pain; I took myself out of the game.

Without exception, my first thought after ouch is, How will this affect my golf game? In fact, part of my reluctance to play soccer at all is the growing certainty that a soccer-related injury will sideline me from golf (I’ve seen other players break bones, and pull muscles. One of my indoor teammates dislocated his shoulder and another detached his Achilles tendon.)

If I get injured in the winter, I have time to heal before golf season starts. If I get injured in the spring, summer, or fall, I may miss several weeks of golf. I’d be sad. It looks as though my soccer season has ended.

Technorati Tags: golf, soccer