It is heartbreaking to read how Vålerenga player Runa Lillegård is fighting the most important battle of her life after having her life turned upside down. It brings back bad memories. I myself fell over on the football pitch with cardiac arrest in 2011 as a 27-year-old. The easiest thing was to accept that my career was over, but in the days, weeks and months that followed I felt that I was almost in free fall. The experience of being helpless and completely naked led to an identity crisis. IDENTITY CRISIS: news’s football expert Carl-Erik Torp experienced an identity crisis when he suffered a cardiac arrest and was forced to end his career. Photo: Birk Pessl-Kleiven / news “What should I do now? What can I do?”. I can’t do anything. Ever since I started playing football at the age of seven in Kolbotn, both I and everyone around me had identified myself as a football player. I was the best in the class and the star in my environment. Football was all-consuming and I sacrificed everything to follow my football dream. 1,745 kilometers further north, Runa followed the same dream when she grew up in Alta. She was one of Norway’s greatest football talents, but now she has to stand on the sidelines to follow the sport she loves. – It’s a bit painful, because he has the life I want. It’s nice to be part of the game, but it’s something else to stand on the sidelines and cheer, says Runa about what it’s like to see her boyfriend, Oscar Aga, play for the 1st division club Fredrikstad. Put in a larger perspective: I fear for the everyday lives of Runa and other athletes whose dreams are shattered as a result of the vulnerability in top sport. All athletes are aware that early on in their careers, they should get to grips with the life that awaits them after their career. I myself remember how I was absorbed in the pursuit of margins, living in the present and thinking about the next match. FOOTBALL IDENTITY: Carl-Erik Torp played for Kongsvinger before becoming a Brann player ahead of the 2011 season. Photo: Svein Ove Ekornesvåg / Scanpix I used these excuses to push education thoughts in front of me. My teammates and I never thought about how the vulnerability of sport would affect us. Therefore, I never had any alternative plan when my career was involuntarily torn away. I never prioritized schooling in my football career, but in hindsight I want to use my voice. Awareness of safety needs to be further increased. Look up and think beyond the present. It must be a requirement that the athletes take greater responsibility and take control of their own future. The performers must have a relationship with what security they have, what compensation applies and how good the insurance is. It is obvious that all athletes should be members of NISO, which helps in your profession as an athlete. ALENE: – I would be so tired that there would be no opportunity to think about anything. If I were to feel like that, I wouldn’t live, I’m honest about that, says Lillegård about what it would be like to enter working life. Photo: Torstein Georg Bøe / news It is not a human right to be a top athlete. Making a living from sport is an extreme privilege and the athletes accept and are aware of the risks they are exposed to, but serious work accidents are a brutal mental strain. For me, the worst part was acknowledging that the tool that has been most important to me no longer works. Runa’s story is a painful reminder of how vulnerable athletes are. Runa was extremely unlucky for one second on the football pitch. Even if the top sports journey is a cynical ego journey for self-realisation, this does not mean that you should be punished extra harshly if you are exposed to accidents at work. She should not feel like she is a burden to society after getting hit in the head with a ball at her workplace. NAV has rejected her demand to have the incident approved as an occupational accident three times and they justify the rejection by saying that the injury is “within what can be expected” when playing football. I think that is a problem. NAV responds to this news has put questions to NAV based on the criticism from Runa Lillegård and lawyer Trine Skjelstad Jensen. The questions have been answered by director of family and pension benefits, Pia Høst: Why will NAV not approve this incident as an occupational injury? We understand that legal practice can seem strict for professional team sports practitioners. To explain what is needed, we would like to illustrate with an example from a judgment from the Social Security Court where an ice hockey player had four teeth knocked out by a fellow player (TRR-2020-2667). The social security court concluded that the incident was not an occupational accident. It is a condition for an injury to be approved as an occupational injury that what led to the injury is an accident at work, as defined by law and case law. What is considered a sudden and unexpected external event is assessed based on what is normal stress in the profession. There is a judgment from the Supreme Court which sheds light on this especially for the professional practice of team sports (HR-2006-2107). The fact that an injury occurs at the workplace is not enough for it to be recognized as an occupational injury. There must be what is defined as an occupational accident. An accident at work means an external event that occurs suddenly and unexpectedly. It can also be a specific external load or stress that deviates from the usual work tasks. In this case, the injury occurred in a soccer match, and the episode described is thus within the scope of the work of a professional soccer player. What does it take for an athlete to have an incident approved as an occupational injury? In cases where a team sport athlete is exposed to incidents that deviate significantly from what is usual in the sport, this could be an occupational accident. This could be the case, for example, if in football you are unreasonably kicked down without having the ball. Runa Lillegård’s lawyer tells us the following: “Runa Lillegård’s case is an occupational accident as we see it, but a correct interpretation and application of the rules must be made. And we believe NAV has not done that in this case.” What is NAV’s comment on this? We believe that in this case we have considered the relevant aspects of the case and made a correct balance. We still do not rule out that the Social Security Court may assess the facts or the rules in a different way, but we are confident that our assessment and our decision are justifiable. What happens next in this case from NAV’s side? The case has been appealed to the Social Security Court. The NAV Appeals Body has not yet completed processing this appeal. In conclusion, we would like to say that we fully understand that this seems strict and that it is a difficult situation to be in. I do not understand how NAV considers that Runa’s head injury is not an accident at work. Ultimately, she cannot work after a situation that would never have happened if she was not a footballer. TRAINING: Since she suffered the head injury on 23 October, Runa Lillegård has not played a single match. Photo: Torstein Georg Bøe / news – The fact that an injury occurs at the workplace is not enough for it to be approved as an occupational injury. There must be what is defined as an occupational accident. An accident at work means an external event that occurs suddenly and unexpectedly. It can also be a concrete external burden or stress that deviates from the usual work tasks, said Director of Family and Pension Benefits at NAV, Pia Høst, to news earlier this autumn. NAV and insurance companies should rather look at the consequences of the accident instead of assessing how the damage occurred. If Runa does not receive occupational injury compensation, I believe that football is rejected as a profession. As a professional footballer, you are an athlete and the injury occurred at work. I am eternally grateful that Brann kept the contract and found new tasks for me. It was the first time I really broke down in tears since the cardiac arrest and I felt that I had bought myself time to figure out my new existence. Not all athletes get this hand count. Together with NAV and insurance companies, the athletes must work to improve safety and ensure help when they need it most.
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“The experience of being helpless led to an identity crisis” – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcasting schedule
