Pawe Zasadny is the captain of Molina Sport, the current champion of the Spanish League and Cup of inline hockey. He has been with the Gran Canaria team for 16 seasons. Last summer she was diagnosed with breast cancer: “I got a lump in my chest. The doctor told me it was a cyst and not to worry. I saw that it was growing, but they didn’t do the tests. We waited eight months until they sent me to do them and they detected the cancer“. After hearing the news, the club decided to keep Pawel’s file, even knowing that it would be difficult for him to help his teammates on the track. “We hope he will play with us again,” admits Alejandro Molina, president.
The norm is shameful; I think I deserve respect as a player… and as a person
This weekend Pawel went out on the track to warm up, but it wasn’t his decision, it was an imposition. To explain the story, you must first explain the Article 13 of the competition rules. It explains that he is an assimilated player: a non-national player in possession of an approved license for national competitions during the three seasons prior to the request for the processing of rights.. In other words, having played three seasons at the same club without interruption: at least one game in the first round and another in the second round of the regular season.
Due to Pawel’s illness, this season he has not played any match with Molina Sport. But the first round of the championship was ending, and if he did not appear on the record, he would lose that assimilated status for future seasons. Since he found out that Pawel had cancer, the entity, according to what its president tells Front Page, got down to work and made the pertinent inquiries to the Spanish Federation: “We exposed what happens. We said that the player had cancer and that he could not play. The Federation said that it was going to wait for the resolution of the CSDbut that they were not going to notify us of anything in writing”.
Given the uncertainty generated, Molina Sport decided that Pawel would comply with the rule in the last game of the first round. He dressed with his companions and his name appeared in the arbitration act. “A sick player should not be forced to equip themselves. The rule is shameful and it must be changed as soon as possible. It is not a matter of work or similar, but rather that I am not feeling well. It is not a flu, but a strong illness,” he insists. the player. Alejandro Molina goes further: “We only ask for humanity. There is no right that a player cannot be injured or have a disease as serious as the one Pawel suffers.” The image with his number 9 on his back made those attending the match stand on end: “The match was very emotional. My eyes still fill with tears when I see the ovation of the players and the public“, explains the club’s top president.
Pawel’s day to day is not easy. Above all, what he wants most is to put his skates back on and do what he likes to do, play hockey. It is the story of a club that until three years ago had not won a national title – he raised it – and that in those seasons has won two Leagues and three Cups. Now he leads the standings, with six points more than Valladolid: “After the chemo everything hurts and I am almost a week without being able to move. As soon as I’m well, I try to go to training with my teammates.. It’s the best time of the month”, admits the Pole. Despite this stone that life has put in his way, Pawel tries to keep his smile and look to the future with optimism: “I have had four chemo sessions and I two left. I feel encouraged and with the strength to get ahead, “he says. Then the radiotherapy arrives.
We only ask for humanity; there is no right that a player cannot suffer from a disease
This matter is in the hands of Molina Sport’s lawyers. A subject that comes out of the sporting and the human, and that collides head-on with the strict bureaucracy that sometimes governs the world of sport. “Not only as a player, but as a person, I deserve respect,” Pawel says painfully.
