Playing on One String: Injury, Identity, and Life Beyond Sport

Someone once told me to think of life like a guitar, with each string representing something that is important to us, something that makes us whole, fulfilled and uniquely ourselves. Together, they play a pretty sweet tune. But like any guitar string, they can snap.

As athletes, we’re often taught to live with an all or nothing mentality from a young age. Pretty soon, sport becomes life, until life outside of sport fades into the background.

Now imagine what that guitar might look like. Instead of being full and rich, there is just one string. And what happens when that guitar string breaks, through injury, illness, burnout, or rejection?

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One day on LinkedIn, I stumbled across a post by footballer Owen Bickley. He was reflecting on his injury journey. Not just the physical recovery, but the emotional toll of being sidelined from the game that once defined him. Owen spoke with honesty and vulnerability about the parts of injury we rarely talk about, the identity loss, the silence, the uncertainty.

His words echo, and will continue to echo, the experiences of so many athletes. In my work, I try to champion the importance of life outside of sport, but this can be a difficult message to digest. When we are taught that we have to surrender everything to sport and sport becomes everything, the idea of being more than an athlete can feel distant.

 I reached out to Owen to see whether he had any advice that could support my work with athletes. I am grateful that he was open to connect and share his story, not just with me, but with everyone here too. He’s now on a mission to support athletes navigating the same challenges he faced, and he was more than happy to co-create this blog with me to help do just that.

I hope you find something meaningful in Owen’s story and learn to let your value shine through sport, instead of letting sport define your value.

“You don’t know how hard injury is…”

Owen spoke about the isolation. The challenge of spending day after day in the gym, watching your friends and teammates train outside. The uncertainty of not knowing when, or even if, you will be fit enough to be back with them. The hard work you put in despite not seeing the progress that usually motivates you. And then there’s the world outside of sport.

“I’m a footballer… I was a footballer?”

Owen spoke about walking through town and passing places that used to mean something, spaces that were connected to a version of him that no longer existed. It’s amazing how a place that was once a home can suddenly feel unfamiliar and even hostile. The stadium, the training ground, even cafes or parks, can become reminders of what was, and what’s no longer.

And what about our own identity? We love describing ourselves through our work, our hobbies, our passions.

I’m a sport psychologist. I’m an artist. I’m a footballer.

But what happens when this no longer fits? Who do we become? When injury, transition, or change forces us to rewrite the sentence? Who do we become when the label fades, and the string snaps?

“Find what you enjoy doing the most outside of football. Work on life outside of football.”

It might sound simple, but for many athletes this might be one of the toughest shifts they have to make. When a sport has been life, it can be hard to think that anything else could ever take its place. But for Owen, this point of discomfort and change was exactly where the healing began. There are so many options out there, for Owen it was golf and gym, but it is finding what fits for you, perhaps art, or music, or family or anything in-between.

For any young athletes, or parents and coaches of young athletes, reading this, remember that it is important to hold onto your life outside of sport. Fill your guitar with strings, not only does this mean you are protected when a string breaks, but the pressure on performing is alleviated. You realise that your value goes beyond your sport.

“There is so much more to life than football”

This isn’t about distraction, it’s about rediscovery. It’s about remembering that your value isn’t tied to your sport, and that fulfilment can come from many places. It’s about filling your guitar with strings.

“I didn’t give up on my football career; I have just gone to the very end and now I need to look beyond football”

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On a personal note, I want to thank Owen for sharing his story with such transparency. To everyone reading this, I encourage you to take a moment today to self-reflect:

What truly matters in your life?

What do you have outside of your sport?

What's one small step could you make today, to start building a life beyond it?

Because your value isn't defined by performance, it's shaped by the strings you have on your guitar.