So this isn't exactly what you asked for, but I had an injury from running track and cross country in high school that was pretty gnarly - I lived in an area with lots of hills, and all of the road running did a number on my hips. It kept me out of races for a year. But there was definitely a happy ending.
Instead of just making me go home, Coach made me the team manager. I was in charge of recording my teammates' performance for every practice, scorekeeping for every meet, uniform distribution, equipment checkout, lockup, team photos, fundraisers, everything. During cross country season Coach and I would stake out the best spots along the course to time our runners, and he'd buy me a snow cone or something after. I organized the pasta dinners before the big races. I was in charge of telling which moms to bring orange slices and which to bring Chewy bars. I was the last one to leave practice, and the last one off the field after a meet.
After a race, my teammates would come straight the dingy little card table that I did all of my scorekeeping on. They were sweaty, wobbly messes but they were in the best moods. They'd talk to me about their PRs and how much better or worse they did from the last race. They'd ask me if Coach said anything about them, how the scores were stacking up, if we were gonna beat Torrey Pines for once.
By the time I could run again I knew everyone on our (huge) track team. Before my injury, I had two friends. I was completely invisible and I didn't know how to talk to anyone. After, someone always saved me a seat on the bus, and there was always a group of people cheering for me during my races. I'm in my 20s now and I still talk to a large majority of my old teammates.
It doesn't sound that great when it's all typed out like this, but I was a 16 year old girl. It was the first time an adult other than my parents trusted me with any responsibility. I'm from a pretty poor area, and a lot of my fellow students depended on track scholarships to get to college. I kept their records and filmed their performances and talked to the recruiters. Coach wrote my letter of recommendation for university applications, and I have him to thank for getting into my first choice school.
To actually address your post, I completely healed from my injury after lots of PT and time off. It was hard. But I haven't had an injury since, and I run every day.
TLDR: I had a bunch of hairline fractures so my Coach gave me his job. I get very sentimental when I haven't slept in days.