Sage Steele couldn’t control her tears as she got emotional while explaining how her life “flashed before her eyes” after he got hit in the face by Jon Rahm’s golf ball at last month’s PGA Championship. Sage explained how she felt on “SportsCenter” on Wednesday.
According to the New York Post;
Steele, who returned to the ESPN show after three weeks in recovery, said surgery and “lots of makeup” have covered her injuries, which included a missing tooth.
“It is amazing how quickly life can change right. One minute you’re out on a course, just innocently watching amazing golfers play and the next moment you’re on the ground in pain with your entire life flashing before your eyes, scared to death trying to comprehend what the hell just happened,” said Steele, who became emotional while thanking her “SportsCenter” co-host Matt Barrie for sticking by her side throughout the ordeal, which she said was “arguably the lowest point” in her life.
“Once I went to the ground I didn’t know what happened I was so scared,” she said. “I need people to know this. I’m on the ground, a mess, as you saw, and I just looked at Matt and I said, ‘Please don’t leave me.’ I grabbed your ankle with my bloody hand and said, ‘Please don’t leave me.’”
Steele said Barrie helped to get her on a stretcher and later visited her at the hospital, where she joked the pair took “really disgusting pictures,” as she laid in bed with a bloody mouth.
Steele added that Barrie “shooed off” TV cameras from capturing the gruesome incident.
“You can speak to it Matt,” Steele said, thanking her friends, family and supporters for sending well wishes. “I feel like the luckiest person in the world to still be here and still standing here after that with was three weeks ago tomorrow.
“I need like to thank my dentist, who’s now my best friend in the world, Matt Keefe at Canton Valley Dental [in Connecticut] … We have a long way to go. A lot of stuff still has to be done. The second I got off that plane, he was there and I wouldn’t be there without him for sure.”
According to Barrie, Steele took the hit “like a champ.”
“By the way you’re stuck with me for life, no matter what happens where we all end up professionally, personally, you’re here with me for life,” Steele said.
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