Athlete Interview: Kaya Chung

As an athlete, hearing that you have a meniscus tear can be a soul-crushing experience. Kaya Chung, a soccer player and recent graduate of Arcadia High School is no stranger to this experience. She tore her right lateral meniscus during her freshman year and her left lateral meniscus during her senior year. Both tears were incomplete tears, meaning the recovery time for both was not as long. In this mini-article, Chung discusses her experience and what it took for her to return to the pitch.

Q1. What was it like to have a meniscus tear?

"It was a very hard process for me to recover both times [as] it was hard for me to be sidelined from soccer. For my right knee, I was out for almost a year, and for my left knee, I did everything I could to recover as fast as I could. [As a result], I was only out for 2-3 months. I also had surgery on both knees to remove part of my meniscus."

Q2. What were your initial thoughts when you had the tear?

"The first time I tore my meniscus I didn't really understand what it meant but I knew that I would be out of playing for a while and I knew that it would be awful. The second time I tore it I knew what it was like and it was [before] my senior season, so I was initially devastated."

Q3. What was rehab like?

"Rehab for both my knees was something I had to work really hard at. I had to do exercises every day at home and went to the PT Clinic about 2 times a week. There [was] a lot of strengthening, stretching, and modalities that I had to do as part of my rehab and recovery."

Q4. What was the mental aspect behind having to deal with your injuries?

"it was hard for me to not be able to play soccer due to my injury. I was sidelined for both my club and high school seasons for my first tear and it was hard for me to just sit and watch. When I tore my meniscus my senior year it was even harder for me because I was looking forward to my senior season of high school soccer. I knew I had to do whatever I could in order to play my senior season."

Q5. How did it feel to know you were cleared and play again?

"In both cases, when I found out I was cleared to play [again], I was filled with relief and excitement knowing that all my hard work at recovery paid off and I would finally be able to play again. However, it [was] also a nerve-racking experience because even though I knew I was able to play again, I was still scared that I would re-injure myself and [that] I wouldn't be as good as I was before my injury."

Kaya was able to return and play out the back half of her senior season. In the fall, she will be attending San Diego State University as a kinesiology major on the Pre-PT path as she hopes to become an athletic trainer in the future.