Marra back after long injury layoff

Marra back after long injury layoff

The St. Bonaventure women’s soccer team has yet to assemble a win together as its record stands at 0-2-4 this season. Although they’ve been struggling to start, the team had a spark to them Aug. 24 in its game against Cornell University.
St. Bonaventure scored the first goal of the game. Bella Marra, a junior midfielder, scored. It was her first goal since a devastating foot injury that occurred last December.
Marra was diagnosed with a Lisfranc fracture. The injury is the result of broken bones in the midfoot, and ligaments that support the midfoot are torn. She suffered this same injury in her sophomore year of high school.
Marra tore the main ligament and she fractured bones in her foot. Her joints were rubbing up against each other for the past five years resulting in her not having a cartilage and having arthritis in her right foot.
She is predominantly right footed.
Marra didn’t think anything was wrong with her foot. She figured it was only a stress fracture or something small, so she played on it.
“I’m the type of player that will play through anything,” Marra said. “It doesn’t matter what it is. I once had to get carried off the field because my foot hurt so bad.”
Last season, Marra went to a podiatrist and was told that she had arthritis in her foot. This raised a red flag in her mind because she was 19. She then went and saw a specialist back in her hometown of Pittsburgh. The doctor at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center said that he was pretty sure that Marra had a Lisfranc fracture. However, since she was playing on it for so long, the injury wasn’t that bad.
Over Christmas break, she went to the same doctor, and she received the information that her foot was in such bad condition, she needed surgery immediately. “I was in shock because I didn’t think it would be that bad,” Marra said.
Marra called her coach, Steve Brdarski, and told him the news. “My thoughts at first weren’t about soccer. It was about her future, her life,” said Brdarski.
After the surgery, where a plate and six screws were put into her foot, she couldn’t put weight on it for weeks. The weeks went by, and she kept lifting despite the setback. Marra continued to do workouts on her own so she could regain strength in her foot.
In a span of four weeks, she started walking again with the aid of a boot and crutches and moved to just a boot before her next surgery.
Marra’s next surgery had the original screws removed, and she continued her rehab in a boot for another six to eight weeks.
In the middle of June, Marra was finally cleared to run and she started on an anti-gravity treadmill.
By the second week in July, she had two weeks to get ready for the season, and she hadn’t run or touched a soccer ball in over seven months. “The cards were absolutely stacked against her, but I knew she would get through it because that’s the type of persistent athlete she is,” Brdarski added.
Preseason was difficult for her because she wasn’t supposed to run as much and she almost passed the fitness test, but fell short. “I was a big part of the team my freshman and sophomore years, and by now, I expected to be a lot better. I expected to be at a better level. I’m not there yet,” said Marra.
Marra was not expected to be already playing in games. Most athletes don’t come back as early as she has, but she kept reiterating that she’s not the same yet.
“My teammates have been there for me. In the first weeks of practices, they inspired me to keep going. When they wanted to quit, they’d look at me and think to themselves that they can’t quit because I’m not quitting.”
During the surgery process, Marra wasn’t too upset, but as the recovery for her took place, she began to get more frustrated. Through everything she had went through, she wouldn’t quit, and there were nights where she wanted to. “When life gets hard, you grind it out even harder,” Marra said.
Marra said her mom is the one that she has to thank the most after all she had been through. There would be nights where her mom wouldn’t sleep worrying about her. Marra’s mom took off days to take her to the hospital. She’d give Marra her medicine every four hours because she needed it.
For Marra to come back from an injury like this and be able to make an impact, it’s incredible. Not many people come back from this and Coach Brdarski talked about the goal against Cornell. “She saw the ball go up. She didn’t take anything for granted and then she put the ball in the back of the net. She executed.”
Now that she is back on the turf, she’s a much happier person. Although she’s not where she wants to be, Marra still makes an impact on the team.
Marra and the Bonnies take on Wright St. on Friday, Sept. 7 at 7 p.m.