This week’s episode of A-Leagues All Access centres on Wellington Phoenix captain and New Zealand international Alex Rufer. Watch the full episode below.
It says a lot about the mental fortitude of Alex Rufer that, while he was only 19 years of age, the Wellington Phoenix midfielder literally tried to walk off a tackle that broke both his left leg and ankle.
“Almost like a wave of adrenaline and shock took over my body,” says Rufer. “I wasn’t in pain, so when I stood up I tried to walk.
“(Then) my leg just collapsed underneath me. I knew pretty quickly it was serious.”
WATCH A-LEAGUES ALL ACCESS, EPISODE 20: BORN FOR THIS
It was December 2015, and Rufer was revelling in the second year of a three-season contract at Wellington Phoenix – the first of his professional career.
Rufer was the club’s youngest-ever Isuzu UTE A-League debutant at the time – a record he held until Liberato Cacace arrived on the scene in 2018.
He had eight A-League Men appearances to his name, and was a senior New Zealand international. All of these landmark career moments had come before the promising young midfielder’s 20th birthday.
Then, disaster struck.
Rufer retells the story as part of this week’s episode of A-Leagues All Access.
Almost eight years have passed since the “excruciating” leg break that threatened to end his professional career before it had truly begun. Today Rufer is Phoenix captain, and back on the international scene.
But it could have all been so different for the teenager who flew into a 50/50 tackle while playing for the Phoenix reserves in the ASB Premiership.
Team Wellington midfielder Mario Barcia was the other party in the committed challenge.
“It wasn’t a bad tackle, it was just a hard tackle,” says Rufer, “and unfortunately, I came off second-best. It wasn’t good.”
The vision is uncovered as part of this week’s episode of A-Leagues All Access.
It shows Rufer immediately rising to his feet in the aftermath of the crunching collision. He takes a handful of hobbled steps, before dropping back to the ground.
The trainer rushes out and relays the message to the referee: “He reckons he’s broken his leg.”
Rufer’s initial fears were realised once he reached the hospital – but that wasn’t the end of the story.
“I broke my leg and ankle,” Rufer says. “I had external fixations (placed) around my leg. The pain was excruciating; I just remember not sleeping at all.
“The surgeon did say it was going to be very tough for me to make it back to the professional level, he was pretty clear on that.
“My biggest fear was potentially not being able to make it through that, and maybe my professional career stopping. But then once I could start doing rehab and walking, my body seemed to heal quite quickly, and I never looked back from there.”
Speaking to Nix TV in 2017, Rufer gave extraordinary detail on the moment he found out the extent of the injury.
“At first, I didn’t think I did anything bad. I was probably in a bit of shock,” he said.
“I didn’t really want to go to the hospital because I thought I was ok. The physios were kind of 50-50 because it didn’t look too bad and I wasn’t in much pain. We went to the hospital just for a scan, an x-ray and we got the worst news really.
“… An hour after the injury when the nurse or doctor came in and said ‘look, you’ve broken your leg and its really bad… it’s a terrible break, you might never play at the same level’, that was for me one of the scariest and (most) frightening moments.
“At the time, I just freaked out. After a while, I started getting a bit more positive a few weeks later, something clicked and I just said to myself, ‘I’m not going to let this define my career’.
“… It just shows you that if you put your mind to it and you work, you can achieve anything.”
Thankfully, Rufer’s arduous road to recovery would prove to be just a chapter in, and not the ending of, his footballing story.
That story is told in full throughout this week’s episode of A-Leagues All Access, titled Born For This.
The episode delves into the past of the Phoenix captain. Born in Geneva, Switzerland, Rufer is the son of former New Zealand international Shane Rufer.
He first envisaged his future in football around the age of five as he, alongside his twin brother Lee, nipped at the heels of his father as he coached at New Zealand’s first ever professional football team: former National Soccer League club Football Kingz FC.
Shane Rufer spent the 1980s playing professionally in Switzerland – most notably for Swiss giants FC Zurich. Shane’s brother Wynton Rufer, meanwhile, enjoyed a storied playing career at top clubs in Switzerland and Germany, and was named Oceania Footballer of the Century in 2000, ahead of Socceroos legend Frank Farina.
Football runs through Alex Rufer’s blood – and he’s never let repeat injury setbacks prevent football from becoming his future.
But that 2015 leg break was a significant setback; the All Access episode shows Rufer reminiscing on his the incident after a collision captured at Phoenix training session. It’s a tangle with Phoenix midfielder Clayton Lewis that results in the Rufer falling to ground, and clutching that same right leg.
It’s only a brief moment – but there’s immediate concern raised for the wellbeing of a player who only recently returned from a 10-month stint on the sidelines due to an ACL tear.
Rufer gingerly props himself up, gets to his feet, and resumes the session.
“That will make All Access!” A voice calls out from off-camera. “(That’s) Alex Rufer: rain, hail or shine.”
Produced by KEEPUP Studios and JAMTV, each new episode of the docuseries will debut on Thursday at 7:30pm AEDT on 10 Play, KEEPUP.COM.AU, the KEEPUP app. It will be available on Australia’s fastest growing streaming service, Paramount+, and will then be broadcast on 10 Bold at 2:00pm AEDT on Sunday afternoons as an appetiser for the evening’s Isuzu UTE A-League Men game on the same channel.
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