THE BOY WHO COULD FLY

23 | loui

"Mikel, it's kind of important." Edu said as he stepped out from the facilities. They were currently in the middle of training. Mikel only nodded briefly and looked around at everyone.

"Nico, you control training for now." Mikel gave the control over to Nico who nodded and gave the next drill to the players. The changing room talk now was what had caused Edu to interrupt training.

"Time for scrimmage I suppose! Sort by number, evens and odds. Even the teams out with subs, go!" Nico ordered and they began sorting themselves. Olivier high fived B, Declan, and Aaron as they found their spots on the pitch. It was nine on nine because the evens team only had nine total.

"Center it!" Olivier begged Martinelli and he obliged. The Brazilian passed straight to Olivier in the box who had a perfect first touch and David was completely exposed. That was until he landed on his non-shooting foot. His ACL leg. Olivier lost his footing and fell straight into the grass as he clutched his leg to his chest.

"Olivier? Are you alright?" Martin leaned over the kid and pats his shoulder lightly.

"Where's Gary?" Olivier complained and rolled over as he let his leg stretch outwards. He soon realized his mistake though and winced before he bent it back to being more comfortable.

"Albert! Go get Gary!" Nico shouted to the other coach who then left.

"I don't know what happened." Olivier admitted as Declan reached out to help him to his feet. He stood up with Declan's aid before jumping a bit on his left foot.

"I think you should sit down until Gary gets here." Nico warned and Olivier gave in. There wasn't much else he could do. The Frenchman sat and watched for a few minutes until Gary and Albert came back. Gary immediately assisted him off the pitch and into the treatment room.

"I don't know what happened, it just stopped working suddenly." Olivier said as he hopped up onto one of the treatment tables and slowly bent his knee.

"I'm so sorry about this, I was running a bit late in traffic today." Gary told him as he grabbed the ankle and slowly bent the knee. Olivier winced not without Gary noticing.

"Doesn't look like you're getting 45 tomorrow." Gary said as he watched the pain subside from Olivier's face. It didn't look too bad but definitely a bit of a setback.

"Does that mean I can play?" Olivier asked hopefully.

"We'll see during warmups, alright?" Gary asked back and Olivier nodded gratefully.

Olivier followed every last detail that Gary had on his list in order to play today and he stepped out of the coach with a smile on his face. The emirates atmosphere was always his favorite. Today, he stepped out with Aaron who started due to a technicality.

"You ready, kid?" Gary asked. He was keeping Olivier isolated during the warmup today. It was for the best and Olivier knew that. All went smoothly and the match began without a hitch. It went from 1-0 to 1-1 and fear grew but nothing changed.

Mikel needed change and so everything changed when Olivier stepped in during the 78th minute. It was much later than he wanted to go in and so he tried to make up for lost time.

"Don't overwork yourself but get out there and get stuff done." Mikel gave him some last works before he high fived B and ran in. His leg was feeling better and he just knew he could score. Now it was whether or not he would.

Luckily Aaron knew Olivier like the back of his hand. So after Aaron collected a corner, Olivier went sprinting down the pitch for Aaron's pass. The forward quickly hopped over the keeper with the ball and just paused to watch it roll in.