Christian Press returns to Angel City following injury

LOS ANGELES (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Soccer star Christian Press returned to the pitch Tuesday, practicing for Angel City of the NWSL.

Press tore her ACL in June 2022 and has since had four surgeries while rehabbing. Tuesday was her first practice in a team setting since the injury.

"[Tuesday] was a milestone, and I was happy to celebrate that with my team. Um, and it was also a really small milestone, because I, I didn't actually do anything new today. Um, I had been doing all the things, uh, that you saw me do today. I've been doing them for weeks, so I felt really prepared for the moment. And it was the next step on, you know, it's still gonna be a decent, um, steepness to this journey.

I think that the last few months of my life have actually been in a lot of ways, the most enjoyable. Um, and I think that that often happens when you lose something that you love so much. I think, uh, you learn to to figure out who you really are and what you really are and what you care about. Um, and it actually allows you to live in a way that's in more in balance with, um, your truth or your inner wisdom.

Um, I think that in trying to heal my knee and in struggling to do so and searching for ways to heal my knee, I've been able to heal a lot of myself. Um I healed a lot more than my knee. My knee is actually the slowest coming along here. Um uh, but that has made my life very enjoyable. And I hope that I can take that joy back onto the pitch in the next couple of months.

Um, one of the things that I've just missed so much is the energy of around people, right? Like you're in a bubble, you're in bubble wrap when you're injured and just exchanging that energy with your team and knowing that you're all on a journey together and it's almost like this coming out of isolation, period and just having bodies on the field and and having them care, it was very warm, and it was very meaningful.

I, like, try to embrace that excitement and not like, squander it. But then also, like, temper it just with the balance and the reality that this is not in my control. And, um, patience has been my best friend for the last 730 days to be back in my team training, which is again, like a small milestone, but one that, like you're all here for, um, it it feels like a full circle kind of moment. It feels a little poetic to to hit it on the day precisely."

Christian Press