The Rising Star - Alexia Putellas

Part 95

My face scrunched up in pain before I rolled on my back and took a sharp breath. My hands instantly went to my face so I could hide in them, desperately trying to block out the pain.

"Ella!" "Ellie!" I heard several of my teammates, who saw it happen yell out but the voices I recognized the most were the ones from Mapi, Alexia and Jana.

While most of them crowded around me, one girl in particular had other plans. When I stayed down due to the impact of the tackle, Kheira got up with a smirk on her face.

"What the fuck was that about?!" Jana approached the French girl and shoved her rather hard.

"Chill out! It was just a tackle." Kheira defended herself, pushing Jana away from her.

"Just a tackle?! You could have fucking injured her!" Jana was about to lose it. It wouldn't take much for her to go all out on her teammate.

"I hope I did." Kheira mumbled just loud enough for Jana to hear.

"That's it." This was the breaking point for the young girl. Luckily for her and maybe even Kheira, Ana Maria had noticed the whole interaction between the two players and intervened right on time, grabbing Jana and dragging her away alongside her, trying to calm the girl down.

"Jana is right. You could have injured her! You can play hard but you need to watch it during practice." Leila came to Jana's defense.

She had heard bits and pieces about the conversation Jana had with Kheira and she too agreed with Jana and couldn't understand why Kheira would risk such a dangerous tackle.

In the meantime, Alexia was hunched over next to me. She had taken my hands from my face and kept talking to me but I couldn't quite register what she was saying. At the moment the pain was just too much.

"Ella, please open your eyes. Look at me." She softly spoke to me and took my hands in hers, slowly peeling them off my face. I reluctantly opened my eyes and looked at her.

"Good, good girl." She praised me for my small achievement. "Where does it hurt? She asked me right when the physio approached us. 

"Ale, we need you to move." The physio placed her hand on the Spaniard's shoulder but she instantly shook her head.

"I'm not moving." She said with a determined look in her eyes and she held my hand a bit tighter.

"You don't need to leave but you need to move and give us our space." Amelia, the physio, tried again but before Alexia had the chance to react I spoke up.

"Ale, it's fine. It's just a bruise. It's nothing serious." Once the pain was manageable, I slowly sat up to prove my point.

"You don't know that. That needs to be checked out properly." She snapped in worry.

"They will, if you give them some space." I chuckled, grabbing her hand. "I promise I'm fine." I stared into her eyes.

The worry on her face slowly faded but remained to some level. She gave me a small nod and reluctantly moved to the side but not too far so she could keep a good eye on the situation.

"You think you can stand on it?" Amelia asked, moving to my ankle to get a first assessment.

"I think so." I replied not looking up at the woman. Instead my gaze stayed locked on my throbbing ankle. I knew it wasn't too serious but I also knew that it was more than just a bruise like I had told Alexia.

"You think so or you know so?" Amelia looked up from my ankle, trying to see if I was telling the truth or not.

I simply nodded my head at the physio who held out her hand for me to take. With her help I got up and reluctantly put some weight on my foot which was a bad idea. The minute I did I winched and if it wouldn't be for Amelia, I would have been on the ground again.