When Bella Zepeda was chasing the ball, she couldn't have known her freshman soccer season was just moments away from coming to an abrupt and painful stop. For many young athletes, that's just how it goes. One moment you are at your peak, the next you've collided with the goalkeeper and you're on the ground — knowing things may never be the same when you get back up again.
The pain was different from anything the Mountain View High School athlete had felt before. After getting up, her leg gave out. Something was wrong.
"...normally I can bounce back up and play through injuries, but this felt different," Bella wrote. "I was shocked and scared."
An MRI confirmed her fears. She had torn her ACL, a common yet devastating injury that affects female athletes two to eight times more often than males. It meant a major surgery and months of difficult rehabilitation were ahead of her. Her freshman season was over.
"I remember thinking, why me?" She wrote. "I even tried convincing my doctors to shorten my recovery time because I was so eager to get back on the field. I couldn’t imagine missing that much soccer and falling so far behind."
She suffered one of the most devastating injuries in all of sports, persevered through painful rehabilitation and — after months of hard work — battled her way to becoming the top goal earner on the field. Bella Zepeda is Northside Hospital’s latest Comeback Athlete of the Week, and this is her triumphant story.
A knee injury takes a toll
"I think two of the hardest parts of recovering from an ACL injury are the physical and mental toll it takes on you," she wrote. "There were so many things that I couldn’t do anymore. I would get frustrated because I couldn’t jump anywhere close to what I could before surgery. I couldn’t run for as long as I used to, and even walking normally was something I had to work back toward."
Supporting the largest high school athletic outreach program in the Southeast, Northside Hospital Orthopedics serves over 50 Georgia schools, providing sports medicine specialists, athletic trainers and more to safely bring out the best in local athletes. Northside is the official healthcare provider for Georgia State University athletics, Reinhardt University and Georgia Gwinnett College. These partnerships are powered by a massive team of world class health experts with a unified goal: getting student-athletes, like Bella, safely back to doing what they love most.
Northside orthopedic surgeon Dr. Elan Golan was a pivotal part of the Gwinnett County teen's return to the field. Months into her recovery, small victories were finally blossoming into big milestones.
"Things started to change when I stopped focusing so much on how far I still had to go and started celebrating the little things," Bella wrote. "Being able to walk by myself, being able to jump again, or being able to lift my own leg without assistance might not sound like huge accomplishments, but during recovery, they meant everything to me."
Back on field and better than ever
After 10 long months, it was finally time. She was ready for the field.
"I started with limited minutes and slowly worked my way up to unlimited playing time over the next couple of weeks," she wrote. "By the end of my first season back, I had the top goals of the season. Having my friends, teammates, trainers, physical therapists and coaches supporting me throughout the process made such a huge difference."
According to the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine, soccer has the highest ACL injury rate in all of girls sports. The rate of athletes returning to their sport after suffering an ACL injury is also lower among females. Through hard work, Bella beat the odds.
"Being able to step back onto the field and play the game I love is something I don’t take for granted anymore," she wrote. "My ACL recovery taught me that sometimes the best things take time, and just because something isn’t happening as quickly as you want doesn’t mean you’re not making progress."
So how does a student-athlete with a torn knee do it? Celebrating the small victories. Now she's winning a big way.
"To any athlete struggling with a major injury, I would say don’t compare your progress to someone else’s," she wrote. "Everyone recovers differently, and what you see online isn’t always the full picture. Stay consistent with your recovery, trust the people helping you, and celebrate every win, no matter how big or small it feels. They’re still wins, and they still matter."
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*The health story shared here is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Patients should consult with their own physician before making medical decisions.
