Petrolul Ploiesti are a club in a hurry. The Yellow Wolves’ 3-1 first-round defeat of Liverpool in the 1966 European Cup is still cherished in the small industrial city 40 miles north of Bucharest where they play. These, though, are harder times. After going bankrupt two years ago and losing their first-division status, Petrolul were re-formed in the fourth tier. If one of Romania’s most prominent clubs are to meet their target of returning to the top flight by 2019, they have no time to waste.

In their 19-year-old striker Cosmin Lambru, Petrolul have a young wolf leading the charge. But there is more to Lambru’s story than that of a player helping to revive a storied football club. When Lambru came on in Petrolul’s cup win against CS Mioveni in October, his appearance caused quite a stir. A white bandage on his left forearm masked a terrible truth: a plastic prosthesis replacing his hand.

“It’s no problem, I can talk about it without much bother,” Lambru says. “I was playing with my friends on the side of the road, in my village. A large truck came towards us. I saw it was too big for a narrow street like ours and got myself under a gas pipe. The driver lost control, the truck came my direction and my hand got caught between the cabin and the pipe.

“I can’t describe the pain I felt when the truck hit my hand. I took a look at it and it was wide open; I could only see bones, flesh and blood. It’s a black day, a black memory for me. I was the only one injured in the accident. Everything in my arm was torn and crushed. I was in shock.”

Lambru was seven years old. He was immediately taken to hospital and sent straight into surgery. He feared he could lose his arm and never play football again. “The doctors in Ploiesti did great, I owe them a lot,” he said. “I had no wrist in the left arm, so every contact could have meant a bone fracture – I had no mobility at all. Thanks to the doctors, after two months I could dream about being on the pitch again.”

The surgeons extracted fat from his abdomen and implanted it on his arm. Lambru was confined to his hospital bed for a month and a half. “I had to hold my arm right next to my abdomen and stand still because otherwise I would have risked the wound opening up and getting infected,” he says. “It was tough but doing what the doctors asked made sure I could hope about playing football again. I followed all their advice.

“I was thinking about football nonstop. Even while I was in the hospital my dad helped with a TV set so I could watch games. I remember there was an important derby in the Romanian league and I desperately wanted to see it. Dad got some cables in my room, made a big effort so I didn’t miss the game.”

I was thinking about football nonstop. Even in the hospital my dad helped with a TV set so I could watch games

Lambru’s life was changed completely by the accident. Originally left-handed, he needed to learn to write and eat with his right and understandably he struggled. “I had just one arm, I couldn’t do the same things I did before. I was just a kid, I couldn’t comprehend what had really happened to me. And I never thought of the consequences. I just went with the flow, got everything done step by step. I never thought about things getting harder, like I do now, after having confronted them. For example, I can’t drive a normal car, it has to be automatic. I had to visit all sorts of specialists and get all kinds of approvals before being accepted for a driver’s licence course.”

Football helped Lambru to accept his new self. “Against all odds, I returned to training after a few weeks. I was very happy I could be with the boys again. I worked harder than before, 10 times harder. And I became a different player. My speed, my movement, everything changed. I had to reinvent myself. I had a very strong desire to show what I’m made of. To win every game, every cup, everything I was involved in.”

This new approach transformed the talented seven-year-old. Lambru was made captain and scored at least 50 goals every season with Petrolul’s youth teams. His father had played in the second division but he has loftier ambitions. “I dream of playing for Barcelona,” he says. “I love Messi, I love his style, I love their football. They are an amazing team.”

Cosmin Lambru shakes hand with supporters using his remaining hand. Photograph: Stefan Constantin for the Guardian

Lambru is uninhibited when he talks about his ambitions and says he could not have got this far without the support of his girlfriend, Roxana. “In football, things are highly unpredictable. I am here today, in Ploiesti, but what about tomorrow? What about next year? It’s possible that I can achieve a fantastic progress and don’t know where I could end. I have already scored seven goals this season.”

After the accident, Lambru used a Romanian-made prosthesis. “It was of very bad quality – I needed to change it every two or three months,” he says. “It wasn’t comfortable at all.” The solution came from the former Formula One driver Alex Zanardi and his centre in Bologna. Zanardi lost both legs in a crash but famously raced again two years later. Here, Lambru could create a personalised prosthesis.

“It’s a major improvement compared to everything I used before. Still, I wouldn’t wish anyone to wear something like this. It weighs more than two pounds. It’s almost part of me, in a way. I put it on when I wake up, then take it off in the afternoon, to relax, and before I head to sleep. I use a gel to put it in the right position, exactly on the bone and make it stick, without any pain. I got used to this process.

When temperatures go below zero, I feel pain in my left arm. It’s very sensitive, it almost gets frozen

“ Now I want to get a lighter one, made of silicone. That would help me much more. I still think speed is one of my qualities but imagine how I’d run with a new arm.”

Lambru has been helped at Petrolul by the former Chelsea forward Adrian Mutu and the creative maestro Filipe Teixeira, once of West Bromwich Albion and now at Steaua Bucharest; both have had spells with Lambru’s club. “I trained with the first team at Petrolul ever since I was 16,” Lambru says. “Mutu is a very nice guy; he helped others around him. He always asked how I was. Teixeira was fantastic to me. He was very surprised I could do push-ups with the missing arm, he kept encouraging me and making me feel important. I always felt foreign players paid more attention to me because they never saw a player in my situation trying to compete at the highest level.”

Lambru does not consider being 5ft 8in a disadvantage. He is the same height as Manchester City’s Sergio Agüero, one of his favourite strikers. “I love Messi but my position on the pitch is different, so I hope I can resemble Agüero one day. He’s not very tall but very strong, quick and lethal in front of goal. I can also find space, get into position and score.”

The late autumn and early snowy months are the most difficult for him. Petrolul, who are top of the third division at the winter break, do not play again until early March.

Cosmin Lambru. Photograph: Stefan Constantin for the Guardian

“When temperatures go below zero, I feel pain in my left arm,” Lambru says. “I need to protect it very well. It’s very sensitive, it almost gets frozen, so I do my best to keep myself warm. I’d never miss a game because of this pain, though. I can live with it – it’s much more important to play and score.”

Lambru made his Petrolul debut aged 17 on the last day of the 2015-16 season, shortly before the club went bankrupt and were rescued by the fans. “Last season I decided to go out on loan and play for another fourth-tier club. I scored 35 goals. I am ready to show Petrolul and its wonderful fans what I’m made of. Fifteen thousand people were in the stands to celebrate promotion in the third league last summer. I was in the stands. Now I want to write history myself.”

Cosmin Lambru is raising money for a new prosthesis which would make his life much easier. You can donate here: Name: Lambru Cosmin – Daniel IBAN: RO21BUCU1811034289235EUR Open at Alpha Bank Romania.

You can follow Cosmin’s progress on his Facebook page.