from Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star,
When he thinks back to the terrifying moments that came after he crashed head-first into the boards on that October night in Russia, Wojtek Wolski remembers fearing the worst.
“I remember thinking I was paralyzed,” Wolski said in a recent interview with The Star.
And when you watch the video of the incident in question, clipped from the third period of an otherwise unremarkable game in which Wolski was playing for the KHL’s Metallurg Magnitogorsk last season, it’s easy enough to fathom a career-ending disaster. Skating hard in pursuit of a puck, Wolski lost his footing and slid on his stomach toward the rink’s sidewall. As he went, an opposing player fell on his torso, essentially blocking Wolski from using his arms to absorb the impact. Out of control at high speed, Wolski’s helmeted head took the brunt of the blow instead. The memory of the aftermath remains vivid.
“It’s like you hear these bells just going off in your head telling you to move — to move your hands, to move your feet,” Wolski said. “It’s like the bells just got louder and louder and louder, until I started moving my hands and feet. And then it was like, ‘OK, that’s a good sign.’ It’s actually insane how the body works. It has mechanisms to protect you in those situations. It’s fascinating what happens.”
It’s fascinating, too, to hear the details of how the 31-year-old Wolski found his way from that scary scenario to a resumption of his athletic career.
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