When the game was over and the handshakes were done, Louisville City FC's Chris Hubbard found his teammate, Richard Ballard, and gave him a big hug.

During their embrace, they whispered a message to each other in the middle of the Lynn Stadium field: "We're back, baby!"

Despite months of recovery and setbacks, thoughts of retirement and self-doubt, the Louisville natives made their returns to the team from injury together on May 15. It was only fitting considering how the longtime friends relied on each other to get back.

"He helped me a tremendous amount," said Hubbard, a goalie. "I was always a soundboard for him when he needed to get stuff off his chest. … We did really lean on each other a lot. It made our friendship a lot stronger."

For the 24-year-old Hubbard, the road back was a little longer. The Trinity High School graduate signed with LouCity just months after his final college appearance at Notre Dame on Nov. 19, 2017.

He started feeling pain in his knee a few months after that, and was diagnosed with tendinitis in his IT band, a tendon that runs down the outer thigh. He opted to rest it, but the pain worsened. He went for another MRI, which found a stress fracture in his femur.

There was more rest and more pain, prompting another scan. That led to a diagnosis — a cartilage defect in his knee — and surgery, where doctors removed the defect and drilled bone cement into his femur.

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"It was some of the worst pain I’ve ever had to play through. There were times where I was like, I almost have to retire," said Hubbard, who even concocted a plan to get his MBA and move to Chicago or New York. "But luckily the surgery took."

Hubbard felt like life had cheated him. Heading into 2019, he had a chance to compete for playing time after the departure of three-year starter Greg Ranjitsingh to MLS' Orlando City SC, only to experience the setback during preseason training.

So he turned to Ballard, whom he had played against in high school and met while training with former LouCity goalie coach, Thabane Sutu, then a local soccer coach. Ballard listened and provided encouragement.

"I like to think I’m an easy person to talk to because I’ve been through a lot of stuff," said Ballard, a 25-year-old duPont Manual graduate.

It helped — or hurt — that the midfielder was experiencing his own setbacks. He signed with LouCity in 2017 after playing in college at Indiana. He had a strong first year, but was limited to four games last season because of pain in his midsection. His last appearance came on Sept. 11 against FC Cincinnati.

The pain was so bad that there were some days when he couldn't make it out of bed. He practiced but ultimately took on the role of supporter as Louisville City won its second-straight United Soccer League Cup.

"A lot of these guys are going through injuries, and they come up to me, and they’re like, ‘Thank you, I don’t how you’ve done it for so long,'" he said. “I tell them to train every single day because you never know when you might pull up with an injury and your job is over."

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Ballard said perking up his teammates and playing for his hometown team were the motivating factors for his own return. He got encouraging news this season after his fourth MRI finally found a chronic tear of his abductor muscle, near his hip.

He was treated with a platelet-rich plasma injection and returned to practice last month — admittedly skeptical of another setback.

"Over the past year, I’ve had a lot of those moments, thinking I was back," he said. "I’ve never been able to meet my target dates, so I don’t like to put target dates, because there are good days and bad days."

The good day finally came at Lynn Stadium on May 15. Louisville City coach John Hackworth made it an objective to use guys who hadn't seen much playing time, including Ballard and Hubbard, as the team's long injury list got a little shorter.

Hackworth started Hubbard in net for his team's second-round U.S. Open Cup game against Reading United AC. Ballard entered in the 62nd minute as a substitute. They contributed in a 3-0 win that clinched the team's fifth-straight year in at least the third round of the tournament.

"That gives us such a lift to have guys that have been out for a long time and injured, and they come back in and they contribute to a performance like that," Hackworth said in the press conference after the game.

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Hubbard called making his debut in front of around a dozen family members and friends "surreal."

"It really didn’t hit me until it was late in the second half," he said. "There was some kind of break. It kind of got a little quiet. I heard some yelling and I looked up and saw my brother and cousin up in the stands yelling and saw some of my close friends growing up yelling at me. That’s when it really hit me, and I was like, ‘Wow, this is awesome.’”

Ballard said the moment was special for them both.

"When your doctors can't figure out your injuries and you wonder whether you're getting the proper treatment, the injuries prolong and it leaves you questioning if you're ever going to get healthy," Ballard said. "We really had to trust in ourselves and what we knew to get through this and stay focused on the vision of playing the game we love again."

The return was just the first step for both players. Next is to play in a USL league game. Then it's to crack the regular rotation as LouCity goes for a third-straight championship.

In the meantime, they'll continue to rely on each other to get there. Because they're back, baby.

Justin Sayers: 502-582-4252; jsayers@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @_JustinSayers. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/justins.

Up next

Louisville City FC vs. Bethlehem Steel FC

7 p.m. Wednesday, Lynn Stadium

Online: WatchESPN