By Ward Furany
We met at a small café in Alserkal Avenue. It was calm, the kind of place where people sit for hours with laptops and coffee cups to work. Salma Shaarawi had just finished some schoolwork when we started talking. She was dressed in a sporty, casual outfit that felt very much like her, practical, comfortable and effortless.
She spoke easily about university, football and what she wants to do next. But when the topic reached the day of the incident in November 2024, something changed. Her sentences slowed down. She paused more. The memory was still close.
“It happened in less than five seconds,” she said. “I had just landed from a jump.”
Shaarawi has been playing football since she was 5. Over the years, she competed in multiple clubs across Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. As a striker, she built her game around speed, quick decisions and constant movement. Football was not her only outlet. An active individual by nature, she also participated in sports such as wakeboarding and stand-up paddleboarding (SUP), always gravitating toward activities that demanded balance, strength and motion
In November 2024, during a match, that movement stopped.
She tore her anterior cruciate ligament, commonly known as ACL, meniscus and medial collateral ligament, and suffered a bone bruise. Two days after graduating from university in December 2024, she underwent surgery.
She remembers screaming and crying. Although people surrounded her, she could not hear anyone. The pain and the noise in her head were overpowering. Her first thought, she said, was hoping it was not an ACL injury.
For female athletes, ACL injuries are not rare. Studies show that women are four to seven times more likely to tear their ACL than men. Yet most long-term research and prevention models have historically focused on male athletes. Shaarawi was aware of this even before her injury. She had followed reports of dozens of women football players tearing their ACLs within a single month.
She believes not enough studies explain why these injuries happen or how to prevent them.
After surgery, the challenge was no longer just physical. It became mental. As someone who defines herself through movement, the thought of not being able to move normally for an unknown period felt nearly unbearable.
Even with support from family and friends, she experienced a sense of isolation. For months, she could not watch football or join conversations about matches because it was triggering. The sport had been part of her identity for nearly her entire life. Suddenly, she was outside of it.
“Many athletes say the hardest part isn’t the pain but the silence,” she said. “I definitely felt that.”
Recovery has not been straightforward. Along with the physical demands of rehabilitation, she faced obstacles within the health care system that forced her to travel abroad to continue treatment. Now, she is in the final stages of rehabilitation but has not fully returned to the field.
What surprised her most was the emotional instability that came with recovery. Progress was inconsistent. Some days felt strong but other days felt like setbacks.
“It’s a mental and physical roller coaster,” Shaarawi said. “One day your body feels strong. The next day you can’t get out of bed.”
Doubt became part of the process. She questioned almost daily whether she would return to her previous level or even run normally again.
There was also pressure, though it came mainly from herself. She wanted the recovery to be over instantly, but she learned that it requires time, effort and discipline.
Despite everything, her perspective has shifted. The injury forced her to rethink how she views her body and the sport she loves.
“Never take your health for granted,” she said. “Playing a sport isn’t enough if you’re not taking care of your body.”
Sitting across from her in the café, she no longer speaks with fear when she talks about football. She speaks with caution, but also determination.
“Baby steps,” she said. “I’ll get back to the same level and even better one day.”
Shaarawi’s story reflects more than one athlete’s recovery. It highlights a broader issue in
women’s sports, a research gap that leaves female athletes more vulnerable and underrepresented in injury prevention conversations. At the same time, it shows how deeply sport can shape identity and how difficult it is to lose that identity, even temporarily.
Her return may not be dramatic or immediate. But it is steady. For now, that is enough.
