Benjamin Henrichs interview: ‘I heard my Achilles go bang. I was crying on the floor'

New York Times

20-03-2025

Above the noise of 75,000 people, Benjamin Henrichs still heard his Achilles tendon rupture. It was a 'bang' and then, quickly, a fierce current of pain.
It was December 2024 and Henrich's RB Leipzig were playing Bayern Munich in a packed Allianz Arena. Henrichs, now 28, had avoided serious injury his entire career. He had never torn anything. Never needed surgery.
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This time, he knew it was different.
'When you are in the stadium and there are 75,000 people screaming and you hear your own body, it's a real shock in that moment,' he says. 'The fact that I heard it, I knew: 'OK, this is something I never experienced before'. I was crying on the floor and then, after everyone had come to help, I tried to lift myself. But I could already see they had cut off my football boot.'
Before our interview begins, we watch the footage of the injury — of Henrichs turning to challenge Raphael Guerreiro, but then crumpling to the floor. It's hard not to wince. For him, watching it has become easier. At first, it was necessary.
'The first time I saw it, it gave me goosebumps because it's not like I got hurt in a duel or something,' he says. 'But I wanted to see it because I could not understand how I got injured from a normal movement that I do every day.'
The consequences were obvious.
Henrichs knew that his season was over. A few hours before he meets The Athletic, Julian Nagelsmann named his Germany squad for this week's two-legged Nations League quarter-final against Italy. Henrichs hopes of being part of it had vanished and he will not feature if his country advance to the final stages in June.
But Henrichs is short of self-pity. During our conversation, we talk about faith and rehabilitation, the opportunities for growth and the sources of comfort during the past few months. He is a sensitive, thoughtful person who is searching for positivity wherever he can find it.
But has there been fear?
'Yes, especially throughout the rehab. I'm not there yet, but whenever I start training, I'll be thinking about my left side. What will happen if I just change direction or jump using my left foot? I have to regain my confidence and trust in my body, that will be a huge step.'
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Those are normal worries, the kind any recovering athlete admits to. Helpfully, though, Henrichs is not going through this journey alone.
After he suffered the injury, friends and family from around the world flew in. Joshua Kimmich, the German national team captain, phoned one of Leipzig's doctors and found out Henrichs would have to remain in a Munich hospital for three days before his surgery. It was a few days before Christmas, and Kimmich arranged for a doner kebab to be sent to Henrich's room.
Kimmich actually had two goes at it. The first doner went astray — where it ended up remains a mystery — but the second made it and knowing he was in others' thoughts helped Henrichs at a vulnerable moment.
That weekend, when his former club-mate Dominik Szoboszlai scored for Liverpool in a 6-3 win against Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League, he made a '39' gesture — Henrichs' shirt number — into the television camera.
'It's in times like this you see how much people care about you and how much you mean to them,' Henrichs says.
'My friends and faith: these things have carried me through rehab because I've never been injured before and I didn't know how to deal with it. Especially on days when I have pain or where I feel I'm not moving forward, then you can rely on your family, your close friends and your faith.
'When I got the injury, I was staying in Munich that night in the hotel. As I was lying there, I was wondering how I could have this kind of injury and why God let this happen.
'But God brought me to where I am now and I could also have got this injury when I was 18, in the step between youth and professional football. If that had happened, I wouldn't be where I am now.'
There is a long way to go.
Henrichs is three months into what is expected to be an eight-month recovery and he is still learning to live with the more humbling parts of this process. 'I can't do anything at the moment. I cannot even drive. I'm dependent on my girlfriend because she has to drive me to training and to cook. With the crutches, it's not possible to take the crutches and get a plate of food.
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'She has to do everything. Let's say you wake up and you just don't feel good, but you still have to serve someone all day. She's had to do whatever I ask for, even if she's sick. It's really hard, but I already told her that as soon as I can walk again, she needs to go on vacation.'
Henrichs is appreciative of those who have taken care of him. The care his girlfriend has given him means a great deal. As do the messages from fans around the world and other players, some he knew before, some he did not. Michael Essien has been in touch to offer his support.
But he has also been proactive. He decided early on to make a documentary — Faith Over Fear — about his experience.
'I saw Hector Bellerin do it when he was at Arsenal. He made a documentary on his anterior cruciate ligament injury and that motivated me. I wanted to show the people like, OK, you get to see Henrichs on the pitch, but you don't know Benny. You don't know the person and you don't know what comes with an injury and what happens through the process.
'I just wanted to show people that there are setbacks. There are moments where you are not always happy, but you see really who I am and how I'm dealing with the injury, and I get a lot of messages, especially also from people who are injured at the moment, going through the same as me.'
He is friends with Presnel Kimpembe, the Paris Saint-Germain full-back who has torn his Achilles twice, and the two speak regularly, with Kimpembe telling Henrichs what to expect at different moments of his recovery: what to feel, what he will be able to do.
Bayer Leverkusen's Martin Terrier was not someone he knew. Terrier suffered a torn Achilles in January and, although they did not have a relationship, the two now have an active WhatsApp chat where they swap stories about rehab, compare their scars and describe what they have learnt along the way.
Henrichs has spent time at Red Bull's Athletic Performance Centre in Salzburg, allowing him to recover alongside athletes from different sporting worlds. He has swapped notes with an Olympic rock climber and a breakdancer, both of whom had their own perspectives and fears unique to their disciplines.
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But the time has still been exacting. Since Henrichs' injury, Leipzig have suffered poor form (three wins from 12 league games) and in January, they signed Ridle Baku from Wolfsburg. Baku can play at right-back or left-back, Henrichs' positions. It was a reminder football stops for nobody.
He has learned, too, that he cannot sit still; that he cannot just be someone who lies in bed or sits in front of the television. He has started to read much more, he says with a laugh, which is not what he expected.
But that, too, has been a way of coping. He's nearly finished Kobe Bryant's book, Mamba Mentality, in which the late NBA Hall of Famer describes his path back from a similar injury in 2013. He watched Aaron Rodgers' Netflix documentary, too, in which the quarterback recovered from his Achilles rupturing at the beginning of the 2023 NFL season.
'Each Achilles injury is their own story,' Henrichs says with a smile.
In 2026, Germany will be among the favourites to win the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico and Henrichs, who has made 19 caps, is desperate to be there. He will be 29 when the tournament starts and, having been left out in 2018 and 2022, that will likely be his last chance to play in the tournament.
For now, he misses the dressing room and the competitive tension of the game. During his rehabilitation, he has stopped using the first-team gym at Leipzig's Cottaweg training centre; he wants to be alone, he wants to focus and, you suspect, he wants to subdue his yearnings to play.
He is grinding away in a separate gym, day after day, searching for the little moments that light the way back.
A successful scan. Running on the grass. Kicking a ball.
And this week, after three months, he can toss his crutches away and start walking again.