Chapter 352: Not Fatal, But a Career-Ending Injury

Ji Xiang had experienced the Empathy of arteritis; at the time, it felt like a child was sitting on his shoulder, and the child was growing rapidly, making his shoulder heavier and heavier, while the child would occasionally cover his eyes to "play a joke" on him.

But that feeling of a heavy shoulder was different from now, nor did it feel like there was a knife inside carving back and forth; the pain was already subsiding now, very rapidly.

Although his right shoulder was slightly stiff and numb, the pain was not very obvious compared to the sensations from other diseases he had experienced through Empathy.

"I'm fine," Ji Xiang comforted the Coach.

The Coach's expression was gloomy; he had seen and encountered this before and knew what would happen once a similar problem appeared, so in his view, Ji Xiang's comfort had no meaning at all.

His teammates helped Ji Xiang into the car, and the Coach, with a dark face, slammed his foot on the gas; the car let out a roar, as if expressing the frustration in the Coach's heart.

The Coach didn't speak either, driving the car sullenly all the way to the hospital.

"Coach, I feel okay now, it doesn't hurt."

When the car hit a bump, after Ji Xiang didn't curse the road administration department's ancestors until their graves smoked, he felt the Rotator Cuff Injury didn't seem that unbearable, so he comforted the Coach again.

"What the hell do you know!" the Coach cursed, "You're an athlete, you're an athlete! If a Rotator Cuff Injury appears, there's a high probability your professional career is over!"

Ji Xiang was startled, immediately realizing that "he" was an athlete.

Because of his outstanding physical condition and solid technique, he had already become a top basketball star after playing in the country for three years. Although he hadn't been selected for the NBA, he had already received an invitation from the Australia basketball league and was about to fly there.

One could imagine how great the benefits of participating in a high-level professional league were.

But during the training right before leaving, he had actually suffered a Rotator Cuff Injury; no wonder the Coach's expression looked that bad.

The Coach was good to "him," Ji Xiang knew.

They didn't go to an ordinary hospital, nor did they go to a conventional large Grade A Tertiary Hospital or those famous top-tier domestic hospitals.

The Coach took Ji Xiang to a "special" hospital—a Yundong Kangfu Zhongxin.

There was an appointment in advance; without waiting in line or registering, they saw the Doctor here directly.

The Doctor asked about his medical history, and Ji Xiang answered in an orderly manner.

"Doctor, I feel like there shouldn't be anything wrong," Ji Xiang emphasized at the end.

After the Doctor supported Ji Xiang's right arm and performed a few movements, Ji Xiang spoke.

"That was passive movement; now try lifting your arm yourself," the Doctor said.

Ji Xiang's right arm had been in a relaxed state; he didn't dare to exert force. Having experienced so much through Empathy, Ji Xiang had found a comfortable position and kept it, not wanting to court disaster.

Hearing the Doctor say this, Ji Xiang exerted a little force with his right shoulder, wanting to try lifting it.

It had been fine in the relaxed state just moments ago, with only feelings of numbness and slight dull pain.

However, as soon as Ji Xiang made the movement to lift his shoulder, it felt as if a steel nail had been buried inside his shoulder, stabbing directly into the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, subscapularis, and teres minor muscles.

The sharp pain came so suddenly that Ji Xiang let out an "Ouch."

Let alone performing abduction or external rotation movements, Ji Xiang couldn't even complete the most basic shoulder-lifting movement now.

The Doctor sighed, "Go get a Magnetic Resonance Imaging, let's see the specific situation."

"Yuan Yisheng, is surgery necessary? Can it be cured through acupuncture or moxibustion? I had a team member before who was cured using moxibustion," the Coach asked, full of worry.

"Let's do the examination first," Yuan Yisheng said, while giving the Coach a look.

Ji Xiang had sharp eyes, and he had been in Clinical practice for several months, so he understood the subtext and small gestures of doctors.

With Yuan Yisheng giving the Coach a look while speaking, plus the fact that this was Empathy, Ji Xiang knew he definitely had to have surgery.

The two left the Consultation Room, and the Coach suddenly said, "I left my phone in the Consultation Room, you wait for me."

This trick was too mindless, but Ji Xiang didn't say anything, instead smiling, wanting to use his smile to comfort the Coach. He found a place to sit down and waved his left hand, signaling he was fine.

Ji Xiang took advantage of this time to perform a physical examination on himself; passive movement was no problem, with only slight pain, and for a top athlete with a strong body like his, this level of pain was no problem at all.

But once he moved autonomously, with the slightest exertion, he could feel a piercing pain.

He didn't know how it would be after surgery, Ji Xiang pondered.

But thinking about how the patient's bones had been "dissolved" by friction, he figured it wouldn't be very comfortable either.

Once the thought arose, Ji Xiang seemed to understand why the 19-year-old patient had developed severe muscle atrophy.

If one never dared to move, it would be a miracle if muscle atrophy didn't appear in half a year.

After a full 7 or 8 minutes, the Coach returned.

"Coach, what did the Doctor say? Tell me, I can handle it," Ji Xiang said.

"The Doctor... the Doctor..."

"Is my professional career over?" Ji Xiang asked directly.

"It depends on luck, and on post-operative recovery," the Coach answered with a dark face.

Indeed, the Coach was right, and Ji Xiang had no better options.

He supported his right arm and went with the Coach to undergo various examinations. The results showed a partial tear of the supraspinatus tendon at the greater tuberosity insertion.

After the examinations, Ji Xiang's agent came over in a rage; his expression was even worse than the Coach's.

This was the first time Ji Xiang had encountered the role of an agent; he knew it was perhaps because of money, as once injured, he certainly couldn't go play in the Australian secondary league, and it completely cut off the possibility of playing in the NBA.

The opinion of Yuan Yisheng at the Yundong Kangfu Zhongxin was surgery; after several days of discussion or arguing, the agent brought in a well-known Expert from the United States, Professor Shimisi, to perform the Arthroscopy.

In order to save Ji Xiang's athletic career, the agent was also doing his utmost.

This time, the duration Ji Xiang experienced in Empathy was a bit long, mainly due to the tug-of-war between the agent's team and the Coach, as well as waiting for the American Expert, Professor Shimisi.

Professor Shimisi seemed very busy; the team flew Ji Xiang to New York, and they waited for half a month before getting in line for the surgery.

Ji Xiang was clear about the surgical process, but his request to keep the surgical recording was rejected by Professor Shimisi. Ji Xiang could do nothing about this and could only close his eyes and go into surgery.

The only thing Ji Xiang regretted after waking up from general anesthesia was not seeing the surgical process of a top expert in the field of sports rehabilitation.

Recovery was also guided by a professional team, and everything was quite good, except the expenses were too high; more than ten days later, Ji Xiang and the others returned to the country to carry out the next stage of rehabilitation training.

One month post-surgery, Ji Xiang felt that his right shoulder joint's active and passive movements were both restricted; the range of forward flexion was 120°, the range of abduction was 80°, and the range of backward extension and internal rotation reached his buttocks.

The follow-up X-ray showed no obvious bone abnormalities; the Magnetic Resonance Imaging indicated that the supraspinatus tendon had healed well, with a small amount of fluid under the Acromion.

Next, what Ji Xiang had to face was "cruel" rehabilitation.

(End of chapter)