Efe Obada: Washington Commanders defensive end on staying on NFL ‘ride’ after injury

Efe Obada wants to keep playing in the NFL “till the wheels fall off”. Last November, he feared that day had come.

While playing for the Washington Commanders, the British defensive end was one of three players bearing down on the opposition quarterback.

The Commanders managed to complete the sack but, as most of the team celebrated, Obada lay on the turf in agony.

In the melee, he had collided with a team-mate. He looked down to see his right leg pointing in the wrong direction.

“It was [horrific],” he tells BBC Sport. “While I was getting carted off and I was going to hospital, I was thinking: ‘OK, my leg is facing a different way. What does this mean?’

“I just didn’t know what was happening with my body – what the diagnosis was going to be, how long it’d take [to recover], whether I’d be the same.”

Obada had suffered multiple fractures to his lower leg and had surgery that evening.

And as he contemplated his future, he received some wise words from two-time Super Bowl winner Osi Umenyiora, who continues to act as a mentor having helped Obada earn a shot at the NFL through the league’s international player pathway (IPP) in 2017.

“A lot of people were reaching out, wishing me well, and I spoke to Osi,” adds Obada. “He told me about his injuries and how he was able to come back. Some of his team-mates and one of our offensive linemen have had similar injuries and gone on to play for years.

“So that let me know that if I put in the work and stay true to the rehab programme, I’ll be able to come back. I think the doubt only lasted a day or two. Since then it’s been ‘this is where I’m at, let’s get it’.”