Alexey Stonkus in his youth gave great hopes. He was the leader of Russia’s youth team, and at the age of 19 he entered the base of one of the strongest clubs in the Super League, Yaroslavl Lokomotiv. The season 2003/04 was supposed to be decisive in the career of a promising defender – the head coach of the team, Vladimir Yurzinov Jr., was extremely satisfied with the ward’s game and hoped to soon make him a real leader of the Railroad. But a tragic accident overtook Stonkus’ career and nearly took his life.

It all happened on September 12, 2003 – in the match between Lokomotiv and Metallurg Magnitogorsk. In the 14th minute of the third quarter, with the score 7:2 in favor of the Yaroslavl club, 31-year-old Czech striker Magnitogorsk Tomas Khlubna made a dirty power-up and, in an absolutely unnecessary situation, pushed Alexei Stonkus on board. The young defender was in half position at the time of impact and did not have time to group – as a result, our hero flew to the side on his head and could not get up on his own.

“At first I thought everything was fine: it was just shortness of breath or a bruise. I’ll get up and go. And he began to stand up, a kind of pain, an incomprehensible, unfamiliar pain hit his back. I feel it. The doctor came running, put his hand under his back: ” Broken”said the victim.

The meeting had to be stopped for 10 minutes – that’s how long it took the paramedics to wake up Stonkus, load him on a stretcher and immediately send him in an ambulance to the hospital.

“I was on the ice and at first I didn’t understand anything. It all happened not far away, Khlubna rushed before pushing. There the fall failed. It seems that Alexei’s skate cracked and did not have time for the group. The first wish was to pounce on Khlubna, but she was immediately taken to the dressing room and never again allowed to go on the ice. We visited Alexei in the hospital ”- Lokomotiv striker Alexei Badyukov shared the details of what happened at that time.

Interestingly, the chief referee of that meeting, Alexander Polyakov, who later became the head of the refereeing department of the KHL, did not see violations of rules in Khlubna’s actions. According to Polyakov, such serious consequences were caused by thrust as from the unsuccessful landing of the victim. With this opinion, the head coach of the Yaroslavl team Vladimir Yurzinov categorically disagreed, saying that Russian hockey does not need such legionnaires.

After the incident, the Metallurg coaching team, predictably, decided to send Khlubny to the locker room – it’s easy to guess what would have happened if he had stayed on the ice: the revenge of the Lokomotiv players would not last long.

“I believe Khlubna did this on purpose. The score was already 7:1 in our favor. There were five minutes left to play. They threw the puck into our territory and we ran after it together. I ran first, threw it out and at that moment hit me with a stick on the neck. I flew to the side and Khlubna, who came, doubled me again. Not removed. Did she apologize to me? The trick. Said she did everything right. Well, she has to live with it. God sees everything.”Stonkus said after a while.

Meanwhile, Alexei was immediately taken to the intensive care unit of the Solovyov hospital in Yaroslavl, where he was diagnosed with a wedge-shaped fracture of the 12th vertebra of the thoracic spine. The doctor immediately told the defender that he was very lucky – a little more and it could damage the central nervous system. And in such cases, deaths are not uncommon.

A little later, it turned out that Alexei had not just a vertebral fracture, but a comminuted fracture – in this case, an operation is required to completely replace the damaged disc. The Lokomotiv advocate spent a day waiting for the delivery of a special structure to fix the vertebra, which was supposed to come from Switzerland. With the arrival of construction, the hero of this text immediately underwent an operation, which lasted about four hours. Such surgical interventions are extremely risky – any mistake of the surgeon can paralyze the patient’s legs. But in the case of the railroad defender everything went well.

However, there was no mention of Stonkus returning to hockey any time soon. As a rule, it takes about a year to recover from such injuries – and recovery in this case means returning to a normal life and not pursuing a career in professional sports. What can we talk about if in the first month after the operation Alexei could not stand up on his own and actually learned to walk again? The defender noted that because of this, his gait changed beyond recognition.

“This started when I was in the hospital! They said I was dead. Naturally: in a factory they hung my portrait and a mourning ribbon. Then they wrote that I lived but was disabled for life. I was sure I would come back and play. As it turned out, returning is not so easy. His gait changed so much that relatives could not understand what the problem was. I do not feel any discomfort. And everybody said to me, “Are you limping or what? Does anything else hurt?” “Yeah, I’m not limping, everything is fine with me.” As soon as I started to get on my feet, I convinced the doctors to let me go home. He would come for a checkup every month. Within six months, the load on the back was gone. So I pumped my arms and legs while sitting or lying down. Then they let the load go on the back. I came to the arena every day, training. I did. wish was great— said Stonkus.

Alexei’s debut on the ice after the operation turned out to be much more difficult than he could have imagined: after the first step, he began to swing in different directions, so he had to strictly hold the first laps in the arena. on the side. Over time, the skills returned, but some skills left the defender forever: in Lokomotiv, Stonkus was one of the fastest players, but after the operation and a long recovery there was no trace of the former sharpness. Of course, returning to the previous level in such situations was considered an almost impossible task. But our hero did not lose heart: after a long preparation, he played the first matches for the second team of Lokomotiv and immediately provided an assist. The return seemed imminent. However, instead of getting into the main team of Yaroslavl, Stonkus went to Major League clubs, where he played no more than 6-8 minutes per game. As a result, over time, the Lokomotiv graduate had no offers left, and he decided to become a coach.

Separately, it is worth noting the moral stamina and character of Alexei – unlike many other athletes who are psychologically deteriorated after serious injuries and do not find themselves in ordinary life, he did not lose heart for a minute and did not let himself into depression, which is then often accompanied by alcoholism or other problems . Stonkus hasn’t been offended by injury and his retirement from hockey: once one of the country’s most promising defenders, he has kept his fortitude and continues to do what he loves – educating kids.

“If people on the street find out, they’ll often say, “How’s your back now?” they ask. – “Do not worry.” – “Well, that’s great.” This topic is over. Maybe from the outside everything looks more dramatic. But I’m ok. I’m alive and that’s fine. There is a beloved wife, a daughter is growing up. I work as a trainer. Looking at children, I remember myself at their age – these are wonderful feelings. So if someone suddenly decides to feel sorry for me, don’t waste their time.”says Alexey.