VALLE (Nettavisen): After he suffered a serious knee injury in a second division match in October, Jacob Dicko Eng was forced to spend a year on the sidelines. A donor nerve, a whole lot of testing and hundreds of alternative training sessions at the Intility Arena later, it is uncertain whether the 19-year-old will return within the assumed time frame.
Or at all.
– It’s absolutely awful, I have to be patient and just wait until I can lift my foot. Suddenly I can’t get my nerve to work, then I don’t know what to do. Then the big question is what happens next. I’m very worried, I’m only 19, so I want to play for another ten, fifteen years, Enga’s young talent tells Nettavisen.
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Getting help from her boyfriend
Dicko Eng meets us a few days before Lyn and Vålerenga meet for the big game at Ullevaal. A match he has to watch from the sidelines, while his teammates fight over who is the capital’s best football team.
Despite the fact that he spends several hours a day in the premises at Valle, he is not necessarily any closer to a return to the grass. It all boils down to whether the donor nerve is actually going to work.
Just after the match in October, club doctor Erik Rosenlund was able to ascertain that it was a cruciate ligament and external ligament injury. He explained that the 19-year-old had to sew and reconstruct what was destroyed.
The time since then has been very tough.
Despite the wait and uncertainty for the young footballer, the support at home has been crucial.
Girlfriend Hannah Dobbing keeps making sure that the VIF player continues to fight for a return to the football field. Day after day, she motivates the talent to do the work required to return.
– She has the biggest role, she has my back no matter what. Now she pushes me to exercise, reminds me of my goals and what I can become. She has even more drive than I do, says Dicko Eng.
NB: You can watch all of the OBOS league, as well as a number of matches from the Eliteserien on Nettavisen direct sports.
Received racist messages
The couple met at school and have been together for a year and a half. When the Enga player was injured in October, his girlfriend immediately got an even more important role.
She herself has been involved in athletics and understands the competitive instinct and feelings connected to top sport.
– She gives me a lot of energy and helps me. If I’m going to the football pitch, she’s there, playing passes for me or being a defender.
Dicko Eng fully praises his partner, who has been and is his most important supporter in the demanding times he is now in.
It is also not the first time Dobbing has taken part in the 19-year-old’s career. In September last year, the player opened up about racist messages he had received after a match in the Eliteserien. In the podcast «Meadow on pod» he claimed that Klan members were behind it.
Afterwards, the girlfriend took to social media to protect the player. There she wrote that Dicko Eng did not want to elaborate further on the racism case, but stated that messages such as “you are a monkey” and “get out of the country” were among what had appeared in the inbox.
The footballer himself believes that Dobbing is a notch tougher than himself and dares to take the games for him.
– She is the one who has gone out to the media and helped me there and taken care of it. She can probably take it more than me.
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After the unwanted messages, which created a number of media reports last autumn, Dicko Eng has had to work extra hard to cope with the distractions from the outside world.
– Now I have learned to rule things out, but at the beginning it was very difficult. I have spoken to coaches, mental coaches and psychologists. Then I also have my boyfriend, who reminds me not to let negativity affect me.
One of the measures the youngster has taken is not to spend time on what is written in the media.
– Now I don’t read anything, I don’t follow the positive or the negative. I push it away. Now I know what I should read and what is smart to read.
Close ties with family
Despite the fact that the last six months have been demanding, the Vålerenga player has not given up hope of returning to the football field and continuing to follow his dream. Behind him he has a family who want to see him back, but who most of all want him to do something he enjoys.
– Mum just wants me to be happy, he explains.
Dicko Eng himself knows that it is football that gives him precisely that feeling and that he will therefore fight for a return. At the end of April, he will go through a series of tests and examinations, which will provide more answers about the future.
In the meantime, he shows up at Valle every single day, to support his teammates and to be as well equipped as possible for the return – when it hopefully comes.
On Saturday, he will watch the big match between Lyn and Vålerenga with his girlfriend’s family, in anticipation of being able to contribute to the club in his heart again.