Injured Andrew Bogut Feels He’s Letting People Down

Bits of good news regarding Andrew Bogut have been few and far in between of late. He’s been plagued by nagging ankle injuries, and the big fella feels that he’s letting people down as a result. Per KNBR (via SRI): “On having to watch the team play while hurt: ‘I can’t stand it. It drives me crazy, and it’s probably the most frustrating thing. And I think most athletes will say the same thing. When you’re sitting on the bench in a suit, you feel vulnerable. You see guys out there and you know you can help, and obviously you can’t physically. So it’s very frustrating and something that I’ve learnt to try and deal with but I don’t deal with well. You can deal with it — I’m still alive, I’m still breathing — but … I get down about it every now and then and it’s very frustrating. You hear everyone say stay positive you’ll get through it. Yeah, but you still gotta get through it. So the light at the end of the tunnel is close but it’s just not there yet and hopefully once I’m back out there this will be it for me as far as bad luck goes.’ On learning to accept that the injury is a cause of nature: ‘I feel like I’ve let people down. I just gotta keep telling myself that it’s nature’s cause when you get hurt and you have a major surgery. That’s life. You can’t change that, but hopefully things will turn around for me.’ On if there have been any setbacks: ‘There’s been absolutely no setback. I’ll tell you right now, there’s been no setback whatsoever. It just hasn’t progressed. … Six months ago I was under the knife. I was lying on a table and a surgeon was cutting into my ankle. And four-to-five months ago I was walking around in a walking boot. So I’ve basically been out of the boot for four months now and been basically running for about two months. … It’s still a long process. It’s frustrating, but just gotta keep working through it.’ On not paying attention to what’s being said about him right now: ‘That comes with age. Used to be I read every paper and every article, everything about everybody and knew everything that was going on. I’ve kind of steered away from that, especially in a time like now when I’m hurt. I know what people can think and say, and that’s honest opinions of people. I can’t really change that. I’ve been injury-prone the last couple years but they’ve been high-impact, it’s not an excuse, and that’s just the way it is. I gotta deal with that as a professional athlete. … I’m not trying to get hurt. I’m not trying to sit on the bench and quote-unquote steal money. I want to be out there playing. … It hurts me to be getting paid right now and not being able to help my team.’”