Page 162 of Rookie Rules
The admission tasted like failure.
Owen came over the boards with Dr. Priya Shah behind him. Rowan kept his forehead lowered until the first wave of pain receded.
"Any head contact?" Priya asked.
"No."
"Back? Numbness?"
"No. Skate caught. Leg went out."
Owen placed a hand above his knee. "Can you bring it in?"
Rowan tried. Sharp pain seized the inside of the thigh.
"Stop," Owen said.
"I can get off."
"With us."
They raised him between them. Rowan put weight through the left skate and enough through the right to slide rather than stride. The crowd applauded when he reached the gate.
He hated the sound. Concern was too close to farewell.
At the bench, Luca stood with both gloves gripping the boards. His face was colorless beneath the visor.
Rowan looked at him once.
Luca did not move closer. He turned to Finn and said, "Who takes the draw?"
Team first. Correct channel.
Rowan had never been more proud of him or more alone.
The treatment room was too bright. Owen cut away the compression layer at Rowan's upper thigh while Priya checked hip position, circulation, sensation, and the absence of deformity.
"Resist me," she said, placing her hand against the inside of his knee.
Rowan pressed inward.
Pain stopped the motion.
"Adductor," Owen said.
"Likely," Priya agreed. "Could be muscle or tendon involvement. We image it."
"Tape it."
Neither of them answered.
Priya palpated along the upper medial thigh, stopping when Rowan's breathing changed. "This is not the tightness you dressed with. New mechanism, new loss of function."
She asked him to slide his heel inward along the table. He moved it less than an inch before the muscle seized. Owen recorded the result, then checked again for sensation and pulse below the knee.
"We will arrange imaging," Priya said. "X-ray if the exam indicates bone involvement, MRI to grade the muscle and tendon. Until then: protected weight bearing, compression, ice for comfort, no stretching into pain."
"I know what an adductor protocol is."
