An Olympic ice hockey participant says she might must spend the remainder of her life in a wheelchair after falling and crashing right into a aim submit head-first throughout a match.
Finnish participant Sanni Hakala, 26, is paralysed from the chest down after struggling extreme neck accidents whereas enjoying for her Swedish membership HV71 in an ice hockey recreation in opposition to Djurgården IF on 24 November.
Yesterday, she mentioned on social media she has lowered perform in her arms and arms.
“It is still hard to understand what has happened, that the crash into the goal post was as serious as it was, that the consequences have become so big,” she mentioned.
“Not only that I am forced to stop playing hockey, something that has been a big part of my life for many years, but that I may be forced to sit in a wheelchair for the rest of my life.”
Born on Halloween in 1997, the hockey participant was on boys’ groups till she was 15, at which level she signed with JYP Jyväskylä within the Naisten SM-sarja, the highest flight of Finnish ladies’s hockey.
In November 2016, she left Finland to signal with HV71 – based mostly in Jönköping – within the Swedish Women’s Hockey League.
She scored one aim in six video games as Finland received bronze on the 2018 Winter Olympics, and scored one in seven on the 2022 competitors.
Hakala made her senior worldwide debut on the 2016 IIHF Women’s World Championship and has been on the staff yearly since.
She was additionally a part of Finland’s first-ever silver medal on the 2019 IIHF Women’s World Championship.
In her assertion, Hakala mentioned: “I understand that I am now facing a long and hard fight with my body and the toughest game of my life.
“This scenario clearly sucks however I’m not scared to take it on.”
HV71 has not commented on Hakala’s injuries, but said in support: “Come on Sanni! You are eternally our captain!”
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Hakala’s damage comes after latest detrimental headlines for her sport.
A person was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter final month following the demise {of professional} ice hockey participant Adam Johnson.
Johnson, 29, was severely injured throughout a Challenge Cup match between his Nottingham Panthers staff and Sheffield Steelers on 28 October.
The American’s neck was lower by the skate blade of one other participant on the ice in Sheffield and he was later pronounced lifeless in hospital.
Source: information.sky.com”