Bubble soccer ends with brain injury for high school soccer captain – Atlanta Journal Constitution

A Cobb County high school senior was hospitalized with a brain injury after a game of bubble soccer last Friday.

Salvador “Chava” Reyes was celebrating the end of the Campbell High School soccer season with his teammates when he collided with another player, causing the traumatic head injury, according to Channel 2 Action News.

Reyes was in the Critical Care Unit at WellStar Kennestone Hospital facing a long road to recovery early Thursday.

In bubble soccer, players wear inflatable bubbles and run into each other.

Reyes, who was captain of the Spartan’s boys soccer team, was going up for a header when he collided with another player and flew back onto the ground.

“His forehead just immediately shattered internally and he had some bleeding in his brain,” his sister, Ruby Reyes, told Channel 2.

The injured teen was just two weeks from graduation when the accident happened.

“He was counting down for it,” Ruby Reyes said.

She says her brother was getting ready to try out for a professional soccer team in Mexico after his graduation.

Now, doctors are waiting for swelling to go down before they perform a reconstructive surgery on Salvador Reyes.

One of his coaches, Pierina Anderson, told Channel 2 his teammates are distraught and they are pulling together to help him.

“He had a future for him and we just need all help we can to help the family,” Anderson said.

Several charity soccer games have been scheduled to help raise money for the teen’s medical bills, and a GoFundMe page for Reyes had earned more than $11,600 as of 6:40 a.m. Thursday.