Former Fiji skipper Kalione Nasoko said he had to learn to walk again as he chased his dream of making the national team to the Olympics after his injury.
The 30-year-old has recovered from a lengthy anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury which he suffered in 2019 which prevented him from pursuing his professional career with Pro 14 club Edinburgh Rugby.
“As a rugby player, lots of people say it will be very hard to come back if you have an injury. It can end your career and for me it was really tough after my surgery in Australia,” he said.
“Looking at the boys training in 2019 I wanted to join them. I gained a lot of weight and for me it was a long way of recovery but it took a lot of patience.
“I had followed all the recovery sessions even though I had gained a lot of weight, I couldn’t even run and walk, wanted to do a lot of things with my leg but I couldn’t because of the injury and it was really tough for me.”
He said he had to learn how to walk because he was using crutches to move about during the recovery phase.
“After my surgery in Sydney, I had to use crutches for six weeks.
“My wife was working back on the island so I asked her not to work and come stay with me because I couldn’t help myself up. After six weeks I had to learn to walk again.”
He thanked Naca Cawanibuka and coach Gareth Baber for all the advice and words of encouragement as he went through one of the hardest days of his life.
“When they told me to go for the surgery, I really lost all hope and I thought it was all over but with the officials
they really helped me a lot to stay focused and positive.
“I thank God. If it was not for him, I couldn’t have done it.
“A lot of things have been running through my mind and seeing all the young boys playing very well and then thinking about the Olympics.
“But I was lucky when they cancelled the games last year. When COVID-19 came it gave me time to recover well but if it was done last year I wouldn’t have made it.
“I wanted to come back to Hong Kong but my knee hadn’t fully recovered.
“Watching the boys in Sydney and in LA and speaking to the coach, he told me to work on my rehab, there were no promises of me making it back on the team.
“Coach told me to work hard and try to make it back despite the level of competition from the young boys.
“I was at 120kg at that time when I started running again. To lose 50kg was a lot of sacrifice, Naca had us on diets where we had to lose a lot of carbs and sugar. I sacrificed eating less and in training I had to go extra, like running early in the morning and after dinner.
“They had set a target for us to achieve, they checked our weights but the main thing was the diet.”
The Yasawa native said it was through hard work, dedication and faith that brought him that gold medal.
