Samuel Ward Uses Raptor Mask After Injury
Samual Ward, a field hockey player for England, who represented Britain in the 2016 Olympics for hockey has given us insight into his injuries in 2019. Whilst wanting to raise awareness for how our Raptor Mask has helped him to continue to play hockey safely.
He is known for being an all-round great natural goal scorer and is proud of his great achievements which include scoring more times (nine) than anyone else at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
A former Loughborough car salesman for Volkswagen, now pro hockey player for England was no small feet as Sam put all his time in perfecting his position as an all-round great hockey player who put everything on the line for his sport.
Getting Back to Hockey After Injury
With hockey being Sam’s world, he didn’t want to lose the opportunity to play and represent his home country. He would later be authorised to use a sports protection mask for his games in order to protect both his head and eye from any future injuries.
In a recent podcast with us, Sam mentioned that he was initially using a mask which “looked like a pair of glasses without the lenses”, as he would later discover Raptor Mask and decided to give our sports protection mask a go.
Samuel Ward’s Injury
Late 2019 in November saw Sam sustain a horrible injury after playing against Malaysia as he had already scored twice and was hovering around the goal area as his teammate took a shot at goal and hit him in the head.
The balls speed was around 50mph as most of the injury hovered around his eye as he was rushed off to surgery to help with the pain.
Sam confirmed that during the surgery, they “literally took my face off during surgery” to get access to his eye, which left scarring.
Although Sam’s surgery was a success, his surgeon would have to deliver devastating news that he had irreparable retina damage. This meant that he would sustain lifelong loss of sight in his one eye.
Samuel Ward’s First-time Wearing Raptor Mask
After spending some time wearing the Raptor Mask, Sam soon started to get comfortable with the new addition as he played more games. He has gone on to mention that it has become “second nature” to him and has already had several hits made to the mask in which has left him feeling more safe than ever before.
Sam is now wearing his Raptor Mask to every game and trying his best to increase the awareness of using these masks in Hockey.
Life After Injury
Sam still has peripheral vision in his left eye but only sees “large grey blob”. He has gone on to mention that he does not want to return to his former days where he had worked as a car salesman.
Sam wishes to return to the Olympics in Tokyo to represent his country as he is actively seeking approval after his injury.
Don’t forget to listen to our podcast with Sam.