Key Points
- Sahily Carrero lost her arm in an horrific workplace accident in late 2020.
- She says playing football again was 'like therapy'.
- The Colombian is now coaching a mums' team.
When Sahily Carrero decided to return to the soccer field in Australia, she says she was overwhelmed by fear not to mention feeling insecure and judged.
She says that after losing her arm in a workplace accident, her mental health had deteriorated.
However, she says football has proven to be key to her improved mental health, forcing her to "live in the moment" to the extent that she sometimes forgets her disability altogether.
"I only played for about 15 minutes in my first match and I cried tears of happiness after the game because I felt that everything stopped, that everything was the same as before (the accident), that nothing had happened (to me)," Ms Carrero shares in an interview with SBS Spanish.
"I was enjoying the moment. Everything was fine, there was peace, quiet, everything was perfect."
The Melbourne-based Colombian student says she always knew that playing soccer again would be fraught with difficulty after losing her arm.
"I was very afraid because my English was not the best. In addition, psychologically, people see you without an arm and think: 'She is not going to do it right.' But in my mind, I knew that I loved this. I had been playing soccer for many years, and I could do it," she says.
The young Colombian woman arrived in Australia in 2020 enthusiastic about the progress she had seen in her older brother, who had already been living in the country for some time.
Ms Carrero says that like many other international students, as soon as he set foot on Australian soil, she started studying and looking for work.
With her limited English, she was able to land a job cleaning houses a few weeks later, she says.
But because the income was not enough, she says she continued to look for work, finally securing a job in a food factory in Victoria.
However, she had barely been in her new job for three months when she had a serious accident in which her arm became trapped in a machine, she says.
I woke up in the hospital and saw my arm bandaged, but I could see my fingers. In my mind I thought: 'everything is fine, it wasn't serious, they saved me'. I didn't remember a lot of things. I still don't remember.Sahily Carrero
However, after weeks of operations and recurring infections, Ms Carrero says she was told by surgeons that her arm needed to be amputated to save her life.
"At that time I was suffering a lot in the hospital and I was in a lot of pain so I said: 'yes, I want to live. I don't care. Take it off... take it off!" she recalls.
Ms Carrero's surgery lasted more than 11 hours and even then, it was still touch and go due to more infection.
A couple of weeks later, she says she was over the worst, but a long road of recovery, therapies and treatments awaited her. So for a few more months, she says she lived in the hospital trying to adjust to her new reality.
She says her overwhelming urge was to go back to Colombia to recover with family and friends.
But because it was an accident at work, she says she was effectively tied to Australia for ongoing treatment and therapy, so she reluctantly stayed in this country with her brother and begin her outpatient journey.
Seven months after the accident, her visits to the hospital became less frequent and she says she was able to start planning what she would do with her life going forward.
I think this made me very emotionally and mentally strong because when you face death, you are alone, you feel an emptiness. In that vacuum, I rebuilt myself.
Sahily Carrero is rebuilding her life following the loss of her arm in an accident at work. Credit: Supplied
'Football came to my rescue'
Sport has always been part of Ms Carrero's life. She says she plays soccer ever since she was a young child.
For her, being on the playing field forced her to be in the moment just to focus on being happy, so with that confidence she turned to football again, except now in Australia.
On April last year, the midfielder ran out for her first game with a women's team based at Fawkner Soccer Club, north of Melbourne. She plays in Women's State League 3.
“Even though I had a hard time running, all I could think was: 'Thank you, thank you!' I was very grateful because I said: 'I am alive and I am here, playing a game I love'... It was also a very nice thing because many people saw me and I imagined they were thinking: 'if she can do it, I can do it'," Ms Carrero says.
The young Colombian woman says that at first it hurt her feelings to meet the eyes of other players or spectators who watched her curiously, even strangely.
She says she cried a lot at night, but little by little she managed to turn those curious looks into motivation to show that she could play like any other player and at the same time inspire people.
But the moment of her greatest personal victory came when she scored her first goal on an Australian pitch, she says.
I was crying and thankful for everything that was going on. Because despite everything that happened to me, I said: 'I'm here and I'm doing it.'Sahily Carrero.
Ms Carrero is in the process of building a new life. A little more than two years after her work accident, she says she somehow manages to works every day on her recovery, go to therapy appointments, attend soccer training and, as if that wasn't enough, she has become a coach and inspiration for a group of mums who play soccer.
She says she is currently on the hunt for a job where she can help other people, whether in sports or with those with disabilities. However, she says she doesn't rule out the possibility of playing in a higher division or becoming the coach of a women's soccer team in Australia.
Listen to the full story in Spanish by pressing the play button at the top of this page.
