The Road Back Begins

The ceiling above him was unfamiliar.

Tobi Oliveira blinked slowly, wincing as pain throbbed through his left ankle and up to his calf. The sterile scent of disinfectant and the distant beeping of medical monitors told him everything he needed to know. He was in the hospital.

Again.

The injury from that date with Emilia had hit him harder than expected—mentally more than physically. At the time, the twist had seemed mild. He had laughed it off, insisted he was fine, even cracked a joke about it being karma for trying to impress his girlfriend with a ridiculous jump shot into a fountain coin pool. But by the next morning, his ankle had ballooned, and a deep pain had settled in. An MRI had confirmed a high ankle sprain with minor ligament damage—enough to sideline him for four to six weeks.

Tobi let out a slow breath. That was already two matches missed. Two matches on the bench. Two matches without him in the red and white of Arsenal.