Injury on the Tube

I recently injured my ankle football. I’d love to tell you it was the result of a heroic last-ditch tackle, which won us the game. In fact I just stood on it awkwardly after around 70 seconds of play. I consequently had to travel around on crutches for a couple of weeks.

When you are on crutches Londoners show themselves in a whole new light. They were amazing. In those few weeks I had people holding doors open for me, people giving up seats for me on the tube, TFL workers helping me through the gates, I even made eye contact with a few people! One woman became so incensed with a man pushing in front of me to get a seat on the tube she properly told him off. I felt like the most loved man in the city.

A couple of weeks later I ditched the crutches, but my ankle was still in an awful lot of pain. The problem; is how do you make other commuters aware of this? On one journey I had been stood up for 20 minutes and my ankle was excruciating. A seat became available and I shuffled into it ahead of a couple of other people. One women looked at me with such severity that I might of just spat on a close relatives grave. I tried readjusting my ankle support whilst contorting my face into a permanent grimace, but the damage was done.

So my advice to anyone who suffers from a leg injury and lives in London; keep the crutches with you until you are able to stand for a full journey or suffer the wrath of the angry commuter stare.