It's been five years (and a day) since New England Revolution and then-US national team forward Charlie Davies' infamous car crash that nearly claimed his life and certainly altered the course of his blossoming professional soccer career.
To think that it's been five years since October 13, 2009 — a day before the USMNT secured the top spot of CONCACAF's World Cup qualifying at RFK Stadium — is mindblowing.
To see Davies back out on the field in 2014, contributing to an MLS Cup-aspiring Revolution side, is maybe even more so. The 28-year-old Manchester, New Hampshire native recently sat down with RevolutionSoccer.net to talk at length about the five-year anniversary (above video).
"The peaks and valleys were like Mt. Everest and then you have the Grand Canyon," he says of the time since the accident. "It was crazy the amount of ups and downs that I've had in the past five years. You think you've achieved something, you're happy, and the next day you're down in the dirt.
"Battling injuries, never really feeling healthy and at the same time, trying to push yourself to get better, to get stronger, to get faster. And then relearning a lot of things. I think a lot of people sometimes forget that not only did I have to relearn how to walk, talk, take a shower and learn how to eat food again, but to play the game — that was just like a whole other level of difficulty."
Davies recently appeared on ExtraTime Radioto talk about the Revs' rapid rise in the Eastern Conference, as well as the accident that changed his life forever.
