Seeing Kiki Risgaard on glowing green tennis courts swinging her red, striped racket through the air is not an unusual sight. What is unusual is the person playing with her on the court, her skilled doubles partner.

Why is she not alone?

It all starts last year with a stress fracture in her foot. The pain is a mere inconvenience; the real trouble comes with the frigid winter.

On a Sunday in December she races over the turf of an indoor soccer field during an intense scrimmage. Her feet traverse the ground in a series of delicate, expert footwork maneuvers that reveal her talent as a soccer player, but the tricky footwork leds to her demise.

Blinding pain shoots through her foot, but she perseveres and continues to play. Maybe she breaks her toe. It feels like it, but she brushes it off. Eventually she peels off shoes, shin-guards and socks to inspect the damage done. No blood, no bone, just pain that she cannot  ignore. Soon the pain becomes unbearable; it felt like her foot was submersed in fire.

She insists on seeing a doctor with the thought of a broken her foot floating on the edge of her conscience.

The answer finally came: A broken fifth metatarsal.

The walls close in around her.

She feels suffocated.

A broken foot means no soccer, no tennis. The pain she feels hearing those words is worse than the pain she feels from her shattered foot.

A silver lining begins to shine through her tragedy.

She still graces the courts, but with a partner to share the burden. Mentally and physically they are perfectly in sync, and she uncovers newfound happiness playing the same sport in a new way.