Joe Chapman is desperate to make up for lost time when a new BBL season starts for the Newcastle Eagles tonight. Mark Douglas reports
JOE Chapman is hoping to fly for the Newcastle Eagles again this season – just a few months after a devastating injury meant he had to be taught how to walk again.
Having seen the best season of his professional career cut down in its prime, fit-again Chapman has returned to Tyneside for a third season as an Eagle a determined man.
That is what tends to happen when you come face to face with the realisation that your livelihood is a fleeting one – as Chapman did when he ruptured his Achilles tendon jumping for an innocuous rebound during a match against the Cheshire Jets back in February.
A man of faith, Chapman always believed that his love for God would ensure that the career he fought so hard for would not be brought to a premature conclusion.
But there were undoubtedly dark days as he battled back from a third major injury of a seven-year professional career – not least when he first came off crutches and found simple tasks like walking a major chore.
That was back in the early days of Spring though, and thanks to an intensive programme overseen by Eagles physio Penny Macutkiewicz and his old Chicago college Marquette, he is now desperate to return to the form that made him one of the BBL’s most dangerous players before his injury.
“It has been a tough few months but the most important thing for me was not to panic. A lot of people think that when you tear your Achilles it’s the end of your career,” he said.
“But I’ve already broken my leg and torn my anterior cruciate ligament – I knew what it would take to bounce back from it. To have that support system and the right trainers and people behind me, it makes a difference.
“I never let the thought that it would be the end of my career enter my thinking. I never will. I will leave the game on my own terms and not by injury. But it’s a hard injury to just bounce back from – you need the right people around you and the right trainers and coaches.
“When I first came back my whole balance was off. They needed to teach me how to walk again and the last thing you’re thinking about is playing basketball when you’re being taught that.
“But Penny at the Eagles was a huge help and I’m so glad I didn’t go home straight away. Because when I did go back I could go back to Marquette and they had a programme for me that helped me to learn how to run again and play basketball again.”
