"Listen more closely to your body and take its signals seriously."

It’s a pleasure to listen to Tobias Günther speak. As a strategic consultant at Jung von Matt SPORTS, one of Germany’s most successful sports marketing agencies, his daily tasks include developing and telling stories for companies, clubs, associations, and professional athletes. But when he begins to tell his own story—about how a seemingly harmless sports injury turned into a veritable odyssey of pain—it becomes clear that the fun can come to an end rather quickly.

The moment Tobias opens his eyes while lying on his side in the clinic’s recovery room, he realizes he still can’t see properly. Everything still seems very blurry. Nevertheless, his eyes scan the room for a clock. He feels as though he’s been lying here for a very long time—far too long, in his opinion. Did his surgery perhaps take unexpectedly longer? Were there complications?
Before the surgery, the operating surgeon had explained to Tobias that he wouldn’t be able to accurately assess the complex injury until he saw it firsthand during the procedure and would then have to react based on the situation. An injury that is very rare at his age—Tobias is 27 at the time—and is operated on in Germany only by absolute specialists. If certain parts of the muscle’s tendon apparatus are affected, the surgery could become more difficult and, above all, take longer.

But there’s no clock in sight, and above all, Tobias realizes that moving is out of the question, because a dull, numbing pain shoots through his entire body as soon as he tries to turn from his side-lying position into another position. The surgeon had also informed him before the surgery of the high risk involved, since the sciatic nerve runs directly beneath his injury. If this nerve were to be damaged during the procedure, he would never be able to move his left leg again.

Exactly one week ago, Tobias was still on the soccer field. It wasn’t a particularly important game, but he wanted to be there anyway to support his team, Jung von Matt, against another agency’s team in the Hamburg Advertising League. Tobias wasn’t feeling his best when the game started, since he’d raced a bike race just 10 days earlier—a grueling 160 km in the Cyclassics open race in Hamburg. Tobias had pushed through the entire distance ambitiously, even though he wasn’t quite back to full strength yet due to a cold that hadn’t fully run its course. The recovery time since the race had actually been far too short—he could still feel that clearly when the whistle blew to start the soccer game.

“With the knowledge I have today, I would have listened much more closely to my body’s signals back then. The soccer game came way too soon after that intense bike race—it couldn’t have ended well.”

Tobias was right, because it happened in the second half of the game: As he took a long stride, his left leg felt a jolt like an electric shock, and he heard a dull thud. He realized immediately that something was wrong and that this would be more than just a strain or a torn muscle fiber. In severe pain, Tobias limped off the field and sought the safety of the locker room.
“At that moment, I should have called an ambulance. My body was telling me that very clearly. Unfortunately, my mind decided otherwise. Probably because I didn’t want to admit to myself that I was now lying on the ground. That was a big mistake.”
Over the next few days, he went on his own to see orthopedists and sports medicine doctors, hoping to get an MRI appointment and an accurate diagnosis.

“The pain in my left leg was unbearable. I could barely walk, and all those ibuprofen tablets didn’t help much.”

For several days, Tobias called around all of Hamburg trying to get an MRI appointment, and it was only by luck that he found a radiology practice that could offer him a single slot. Tobias didn’t like the look on the orthopedic surgeon’s face as he examined the images of his injury, but it confirmed his feeling that this was going to be a long and painful ordeal. “There aren’t many doctors who perform this kind of surgery,” said the orthopedic surgeon, “and above all, there’s no time to lose. A large portion of your hamstring muscles is torn. You have a complete tear of the biceps femoris. This has to be done immediately, otherwise the muscle will be lost. But you’re lucky in your misfortune, because I know one of these specialists right here in Hamburg.”

Tobias is still very grateful to this specialist today, because he was able to operate on him that very same week and suture the torn muscle back together without endangering the sciatic nerve. “It was a delicate surgery. I could have practically lost my leg, but luckily I was able to move my toes a little right after the surgery in the recovery room. That was a huge relief.”
And yet the surgery was only the beginning of a very long recovery period that Tobias now had ahead of him. “For the first few days, movement was out of the question. The pain was simply too intense. I didn’t see my roommate until the second day, when I was finally able to turn slightly. It took a very long time before I could—and was even allowed to—take my first steps on crutches.”

After about four weeks in bed, another six weeks on crutches, and only very cautious movement exercises while lying down, the rehabilitation process began with the physical therapist.

“At first, I had to learn how to walk all over again. All my muscle strength was gone. It was a process of recovery in very small steps. Often, it was two steps forward and then one step back. I had to be very patient.”

As I gently engaged my muscles during physical therapy, the need arose to care for the stressed muscles and fascia and to release any adhesions that had formed. “I already had BLACKROLL® tools at home before my injury and was experienced in using them for self-massage. We incorporated some of these tools into my recovery, and over time, we added a few more. They helped me a lot on my long road to recovery.”

If you ask Tobias today what he’s learned from his injury and what advice he might have for others, you’ll get a clear answer: “Listen more closely to your body and take its signals seriously. I knew my recovery time after the bike race was too short, but I went to the soccer game anyway.” Adequate recovery after exercise is a key priority for Tobias today, as he adds: “Vulnerability is an issue—especially for guys like us who often still struggle to accept it when we’re down and just not performing at our best. With my injury, there was no guarantee that everything would turn out okay. Even though I’m grateful and happy today to have sports back in my daily life at all, it was a pretty painful lesson. Unfortunately, I can no longer do some of my favorite sports—soccer, but also things like skiing or squash. Since the injury, my focus has therefore shifted toward cycling and jogging. I could have spared myself the pain and all the consequences if I’d listened to my body better.”