The Anderson Revelation

Back in 2009, Matt Anderson was en route to become one of the major young threats during the World League. During this season, Matt was one of the main outside hitters together with Sean Rooney and their team up provided team USA wins over The Netherlands and Italy in the early rounds of the World League.

USA was on a roll and was expected to win a ticket for the Final Round knowing USA won the Olympic Gold the year before.

(image from Evan K.)

(June 2009) After 2 dominating matches against China in San Jose, California,  Matt, Patak, Rooney and friends  were getting ready to fly to China to play 2 World League intercontinental matches . But fans and everybody else started to notice that Anderson was missing from the Roster. (In case you didn’t know, USA lost to China in 5 but won the next match in 4. Also, USA played in the Final Round but finished last out of the 6 teams.)

Back then,  we wondered “Where is Anderson?”.

After almost 2 years, Anderson finally dishes the REASON behind his disappearance halfway through the 2009 World League tournament.

I thought that I had strained an ab during the warm-up for the second match in San Jose. When we returned back to the Anaheim area that Sunday it still only felt like an ab strain. I started to cough a little and had some sinus trouble the next couple days, and then when I woke up for practice the day before the team was scheduled to leave for China, Bam! It hit me and hit me hard.

I went to the hospital and diagnosed with a pneumonia in my left chest cavity. It reacted well to the antibiotics at first and I was released from the hospital 2 days later. I got back to my apartment and spent the day on the couch watching movies with my brother. He left the next morning and by the afternoon I had to go back to the hospital. This time it was 100% worse.

I can only get one syllable out per breath and was having extreme pain, the worse pain I have ever felt. A day or so later I went into surgery and had two chest tubes put in. I remained in the hospital for a total of 8 days, 2 of which were spent in ICU after surgery. My mom and dad flew out, and my mom hung around for a week extra to help me out back at my apt until I could manage by myself. I was out of the gym for 2 months straight with nothing but an occasional 5-10 minute walk for exercise. Things were getting better everyday and I’m just happy I’ve recovered from it.

Glad you’re so ok now BB! Take care always!

We’re super happy you have recovered from that scary experience! As a matter of fact, we’ve heard and read you’re playing very well this season in the Italian League for Team Callipo. Keep up the great work! We’re always here for you! ( You know that!)

Thanks for sharing!