A competent doctor can cure everything - Chapter 80

Blue Whales’ college fan, ‘Hanbit Univ. Volleyball Newbie.’, was having a happy vacation these days thanks to volleyball.

[ Home Court Analyst: The Blue Whales are in insane form! ]

[ Home Court Analyst: I heard Jeong Ho-jeong was worried about shoulder surgery, but watching her spike, I think there’s no need to worry. ]

[ Home Court Analyst: Emma also got a lot of criticism at first, but seeing her now, her jumping ability and power are no joke. ]

[ Spring Volleyball Go: Right! Emma-chan, who would’ve thought we’d see a back attack in women’s volleyball?! ]

(Back attack: A spike executed by jumping from behind the attack line, about 3 meters from the net.)

She kept up with the KOVO Cup matches and even watched the replays of the Blue Whales’ games.

Afterward, she read the analysis posts that were shared in the volleyball group chat with interest.

Thanks to the Blue Whales’ impressive performance in the tournament, the analysis content was absolutely delightful.

[ Serve-Ace: I feel bad for criticizing Ji Young-sook at first… but she’s playing so well now. ]

[ Home Court Analyst: There was a lot of talk when Ji Young-sook announced she would return to play after giving birth at the age of 40, but seeing her fly around so gracefully after losing weight, I feel reassured. ]

[ Home Court Analyst: And this year’s KOVO Cup has been the rediscovery of So So Min. She woke up during the opening match and has been delivering her share ever since. Because of that, Kim Yul, the setter, seems to have less pressure and is showing even better potential.]

Recently, the conclusions of the analysis posts that were shared were mostly along these lines:

[ Home Court Analyst: It seems like the Blue Whales have become a completely different team this year. If things keep going like this, the regular V-League will be a real spectacle. ]

[ Ho-jeong Ho-jeong☆: I’m so happy these days~ but also kind of confused haha. What’s the secret behind it? ]

Not long ago, an upset occurred when the Blue Whales defeated a team that was considered a favorite to win.

Thanks to that, fans were able to watch the KOVO Cup semifinals.

Everyone was happily screaming, “Is this really the team we knew?”

While reading the posts in the group chat, the Hanbit university student smiled.

‘What’s the secret? I think I know.’

Thus, the Hanbit university student once again came to Suncheon to watch the semifinals.

This time, the banner she brought was not for Jeong Ho-jeong or any other player.

It was for the Blue Whales’ stormy growth—the 7th member!

It was for Team Doctor, Seon-Joon.

‘He can’t come for weekday games, but he will definitely make it for weekend games.’

He would be working at Hanbit Hospital during the weekdays, but weekends were a different story.

With that thought in mind, the Hanbit university student quickly scanned the Blue Whales’ bench.

Sure enough, today, that team doctor appeared.

‘Let’s pull it out quickly!’

She had deliberately chosen a spot where the bench was clearly visible.

The Hanbit university student quickly took out the banner and started waving it.

The team doctor soon noticed it, and appeared a little flustered.

Moreover, when his face even appeared on the big screen, he looked clearly embarrassed.

‘So cute…’

After that small incident, the semifinals finally began.

The Hanbit university student quickly got caught up in the game.

Although she had come alone today, she enthusiastically cheered for the players, shouting slogans.

How much time had passed, she couldn’t tell.

“Ahhh!! Nooo!!”

The Blue Whales had picked up their performance, but as expected in a semifinals match, their opponents were also no pushovers.

The game went back and forth, and they ended up losing the fourth set, tying the match 2:2.

The Hanbit university student, who had been fully immersed in the game, unintentionally screamed out loud and then quickly looked around, feeling self-conscious.

‘Hmm… when I get frustrated, I’ll focus on the team doctor to calm down…’

Normally, she would have been watching the players even during the break, but whenever the game paused, she found herself sneakily glancing at the team doctor.

Then, she saw Jeong Ho-jeong walking toward the team doctor.

‘Is her shoulder bothering her?’

Ho-jeong was holding her shoulder and seemed to be talking to him.

But when the team doctor said something to Jeong Ho-jeong, she laughed in a slightly bewildered way.

‘What did he say?’

Then the team doctor’s next action was even more unexpected.

He started inspecting her calf, not her shoulder.

He pressed down on the calf with his hands, and then he brought out something that looked like a pink latex band.

“Why is he doing that? Her foot looked fine.”

The Hanbit university student couldn’t hold back her curiosity and muttered to herself.

From Ho-jeong’s expression, it seemed like she was just as confused.

But the team doctor’s demeanor remained serious the whole time.

After speaking to her, Ho-jeong sat down and…

‘Huh? Suddenly?’

She stretched out her leg, put the band around her foot, and started stretching!

“??”

What’s with the leg stretching at such a tense moment?

The Hanbit university student thought she must have seen it wrong.

But neither of them seemed to be joking—they both looked extremely serious.

As a final touch, the team doctor wrapped sports tape around Ho-jeong’s ankle.

‘What in the world is going on?’

However, soon after, the final game began, and she quickly forgot about what had just happened.

“Oh no, please…”

The fifth game, where 15 points was the limit. And the nail-biting 13:13 tie.

The Hanbit university student nervously watched the game, almost to the point of biting her nails.

Then, the opposing team’s ball dug into an open spot in the Blue Whales’ court.

A scream erupted from the Blue Whales’ audience.

“Ah, they can’t reach that!”

“Nooo!!”

The first to react from the Blue Whales was Jeong Ho-jeong.

She almost threw herself to the ground to save the ball.

But…

“Ahhh!”

Soon, she was clutching her ankle and curling her body in pain.

The game was temporarily paused, and Ho-jeong was helped off the court.

“Oh no…”

“Is it a bad injury?”

Listening to the murmurs of the audience, the Hanbit university student also looked at the bench with worry.

Fortunately, despite everything, the game ended with a Blue Whales victory.

It was thanks to Jeong Ho-jeong’s determination.

“We won, but… I’m worried about tomorrow’s game.”

“Jeong Ho-jeong probably won’t be able to play, right?”

“The other players look really exhausted too. Maybe it’s because they’ve been pushing hard through five-set matches all throughout the KOVO Cup.”

It was truly a victory marked with injuries.

Even though they had won, the mood in the Blue Whales’ stands was bleak.

Even the fans were thinking skeptically.

“Is this the end for the Blue Whales?”

* * *

“Team doctor!”

“Hurry over here.”

I checked Jeong Ho-jeong’s ankle as she was helped back to the bench.

I quickly began to remove the sports tape that I had wrapped around her ankle earlier.

At a glance, the swelling wasn’t too bad, and most importantly, there were no bruises.

The presence or absence of bruising is an important clue when diagnosing an ankle sprain.

‘Bruising means there was bleeding due to a torn ligament.’

If there is bruising from an ankle sprain, it indicates at least a Grade 2 sprain.

Additionally, bruising raises the likelihood of a fracture.

“Ouch…”

There was some localized tenderness when pressing on the ankle ligaments, but the range of motion in the ankle seemed normal.

When she walked to the bench, I also saw that she was able to bear weight on the ankle.

This looks like a Grade 1 mild sprain.

‘Success.’

The plan I came up with earlier was this:

‘If the game can’t be stopped, prevent further injury as much as possible.’

So when I learned what was going to happen, the first thing I did was apply pressure to the fibularis muscles.

The fibularis muscles, located on the outside of the calf, correspond to the Gallbladder Meridian.

After bending Ho-jeong’s knee, I pressed the concave spot just below the head of her fibula.

“Aah! That hurts!”

The area near the Yanglingquan, a pressure point on the Gallbladder Meridian, was very tense.

I worked my way down the Gallbladder Meridian, gently releasing the tight muscles with my hands.

‘Since the fibularis muscles are this tense, it’s no surprise the sprain was severe.’

The fibularis muscles help stabilize the ankle. As such, they are key muscles related to ankle sprains.

“Do you know how to strengthen the fibularis muscles?”

“Eh? I do, but should we do it now?”

When I handed her a latex band, Ho-jeong was surprised.

It was understandable. Usually, players don’t do stretches during a timeout.

But after seeing my serious expression, she must’ve sensed that something was wrong.

She silently sat down and began stretching with the band.

‘Strengthening the fibularis muscles will help prevent severe sprains.’

Most ankle sprains are of the inversion type, where the foot twists inward.

To prevent inversion sprains, you need to do eversion exercises that strengthen the fibularis muscles.

This is exactly what fibularis strengthening exercises do.

Lastly, I applied kinesiology tape to her ankle.

Taping is useful for musculoskeletal issues because it’s easy to apply, fast, has no side effects, and is effective.

As an adjunct therapy for pain treatment or as a method of preventing sports injuries, it is widely used.

‘Many volleyball players wear tape all the time.’

During game breaks, athletic trainers (ATs) often rush to apply tape. It’s a common sight.

However, there was no tape on Ho-jeong’s ankle or calf.

“I’m going to tape your ankle ligaments and calf muscles.”

“Teacher, I think I should go now… Also, my leg doesn’t really hurt.”

“I’ll do it quickly.”

At my firm tone, she awkwardly glanced toward the court.

Then, she nodded and extended her leg.

“If it’s for Seon-Joon, there must be a reason. Please do it quickly.”

The principle of taping is to find the origin and insertion points of the muscle and apply the tape following the direction of the muscle fibers.

Elastic tape, which has similar flexibility to the skin, is used, and the tape is applied while the muscle is stretched.

The important thing here is that the tape should not be stretched when applying it.

‘This way, when the muscle returns to its normal position, the area where the tape was applied will crease, and space will form between the muscle and skin, increasing blood and lymph circulation.’

As a result, pain-inducing substances are removed more quickly, and the tape itself provides a mild stimulus that reduces pain.

Soon, Ho-jeong’s leg was tightly wrapped in tape.

…In the given time, I did my best to prevent further spraining.

‘I was constantly worried while watching the fifth set.’

I kept doubting whether my decision was right.

I can’t even express how anxious I was about possibly failing to change the future.

Ho-jeong tested her ankle, then gave me a thumbs-up.

“My ankle doesn’t hurt that much anymore.”

“I think this looks like a mild sprain.”

When I said this, the coach and staff finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Ho-jeong widened her eyes and looked at me.

“I think it stopped at this point thanks to you, Seon-Joon. How did you know?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Right before the fifth set, he released my calf muscles and applied the tape. I feel like if he hadn’t done that, I would have been seriously injured.”

“Is that really true?”

Yes, it’s true. I saw the future, and she got seriously injured.

…But I couldn’t say that.

I quickly made up a plausible explanation.

“Actually, I’ve been watching closely. Sprains often happen during sudden changes in direction. Since Ho-jeong is so active, I thought she might be at risk.”

“Thank you, teacher! I’m so relieved it’s not worse than this.”

“It’s good to have a team doctor. You help prevent injuries like this.”

It was a situation that could have led to a serious injury for the ace.

Coach Han Mi-young sighed in relief.

“But what about tomorrow’s game? Do you think Ho-jeong will be able to play?”

Then, it seemed like she suddenly remembered that tomorrow was the final.

A deep furrow appeared on the coach’s brow again.

I, too, had been formulating a treatment plan.

“She’ll have to be able to play.”

Although the conditions here are much worse compared to a hospital, I plan to use every possible method to help her.