After suffering five hamstring injuries in just one year, a former Chelsea wonderkid who was once considered to be one of the best players in the world admitted that he felt as though he “must have killed someone in a past life.”
And having played alongside players such as Reece James, Declan Rice, Mason Mount, and Callum Hudson-Odoi in Chelsea’s academy beginning when he was 11 years old, the initial signs appeared to be promising for a successful professional career before the disaster struck.
Charlie Wakefield, a member of Chelsea’s teams that won the UEFA Youth League and the FA Youth Cup, experienced a string of injuries in a short period of time and needed to undergo specialised treatment in order to recover from his complications. However, everything began to go wrong for him.
He was transported to Barcelona in order to have a portion of the bone marrow from both of his hips extracted. After that, the bone marrow was transported to a laboratory in Italy in order to be grown.
Next, Wakefield went back to the city of Catalan for a successful stem cell treatment, which consisted of injecting twenty million stem cells into his hamstring to treat his condition.
When things began to look up, he was granted permission to take a break with his girlfriend in New York City before beginning the next stage of his rebab. This was given to him when things were looking up.
On the other hand, he was rushed to the hospital with a different kind of shock problem precisely one day after he had returned from the trip.
According to what he said in an exclusive interview with SPORTbible, “It all came on top of each other for me.”
I travelled there by plane, and although I was only there for about five days, the flight there and back was considered to be quite lengthy.
According to me, it triggered something in my lungs. I landed, and on the day that I was driving to begin my rehabilitation at Cobham the following year, I began experiencing chest pains. I was on my way to begin my rehabilitation.
“As I got closer to Cobham, the situation became increasingly worse that I was experiencing. Due to the fact that I was able to arrive, I was taken to the hospital in an ambulance with a pneumothorax, which is essentially a collapsed lung.
“In order to remove all of the air that has been blocked, they will need to inject into your chest. There have been a few times that I’ve seen it in films ever since I had mine.
It was at this point that Wakefield’s mind was filled with dramatic thoughts, which was a terrible turn of events.
In an earlier interview with Goal, he admitted that he had a recollection of feeling as though he had “killed someone in a previous life” as a result of the persistent setbacks that he experienced during a period of time when he was “injury prone for two years.”
The MRI room began to feel like a second home to him, despite the fact that he had trained with the first team and had the opportunity to rub shoulders with Cesc Fabregas, Eden Hazard, and John Terry on occasion. However, he spent a significant amount of time on the sidelines while undergoing rehabilitation.
For a period of two months, Wakefield was prohibited from engaging in any form of physical activity. This time, however, it turned out to be a fortunate circumstance in disguise because it gave him the opportunity to take a break from the stem cell procedure.
However, despite the fact that he exerted a great deal of effort to regain his fitness and establish himself as a member of the first team, the winger was informed that he would not be receiving a new contract. 2018 was the year that marked the conclusion of his eight-year tenure with the club.
“I had a wonderful time there, but I thought it would be best to start over,” Wakefield revealed.
Due to the fact that I did not play a sufficient number of games, it was difficult for them to offer me another contract or to negotiate an extension. Considering the fact that I had a history of injuries, I was never in the least bit concerned about that.
“I look back now and I’ve always been a big believer in everything happening for a reason.”
Before signing with Coventry City for a brief stint in League One, he participated in trials with a number of organisations, including Wigan and Swansea, among others. Following that, Wakefield was placed in the Non League, where they competed alongside teams such as Wealdstone, Bromley, Yeovil, Woking, and Braintree Town!
It was during his time at Yeovil that he “really loved football again” and spent his “favourite season in football” while playing for the club. He also made forty appearances during that time.
At the conclusion of the previous season, he was once again left without a club after Woking decided to release him from their contract.
Nevertheless, Wakefield was not in a hurry to return to 11-a-side football. Instead, he focused his attention on the brand-new Baller League, which is a six-a-side competition in the United Kingdom that features some of the most prominent names in the football and content creator industries.
He was immediately fast-tracked to the draft and picked up by the N5, which is the team led by Arsenal’s Invincibles Jens Lehmann, Robert Pires, and Freddie Ljungberg. After thoroughly enjoying a showcase event that he was invited to, he was immediately draughted.
This was his first time participating in the groundbreaking event, which took place on Monday at the Copper Box Arena and was broadcast live on Sky Sports. Other participants included former Premier League players Jordon Ibe, Ciaran Clark, Marvin Sordell, and Josh Harrop.
“Nothing came up that I wanted to pursue, and a few months down the line, I got a message about the Baller League, and that piqued my interest,” the 26-year-old explained. “It was then that I became interested in them.”
“The timing was perfect for me, as I did not have a club where I could play football, but I still wanted to play football, and I believe that the project that they are currently working on is the best way to play football.
“Playing six-a-side has always been something that I’ve enjoyed doing, and the fact that I’ll be able to do it on a big stage with Sky Sports, YouTube, and Twitch, as well as all of the other names that are supporting it, is a fantastic opportunity.”
“Not only am I going to take it in and have a good time, but I’m also going to make an effort to win! The competitive side that you bring to the table when you play 11-a-side will undoubtedly be brought out.
Wakefield found himself in a situation where he did not miss the game and the “politics” that comes along with it, despite the fact that he has spent the majority of his life playing football professionally.
The sport of running has become his new hobby, and he plans to compete in his first marathon. This, in addition to the fact that he plays thirty minutes of intense and chaotic six-a-side football on a large stage every Monday, is what keeps him going.
He continued by saying, “That is the reason why I did not go back into it this year; there were opportunities, but it was just like to ask myself, ‘Do I really want to do it?'”
Simply take a step back and look at things from the outside in if you are feeling like you don’t have the desire to work on something. In the event that I had accomplished that, I would not be playing in the position that I am currently playing in.
Instead of being draughted by Chelsea legend Terry and his former youth coach Jody Morris, Wakefield is currently playing for three of Arsenal’s most legendary players. In a perfect world, Wakefield would have been draughted by both of these players.
At the draft, he had a great time getting back together with the two of them and catching up with them. He is now looking forward to the time when he will compete against their 26ers team on one of the ten matchdays.
Wakefield remarked that Terry had a significant impact on the young people, saying, “He was a massive influence.”
His ability to interact with young children was remarkable, and he would go out of his way to ensure that we were all in good health. Even though he didn’t have to do that in order to become the person he was, the captain of the club for such a long period of time, he did it anyway.
“Now I’m looking forward to playing against them to be honest.”
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