Books in Cody Trilogy series

Thirteen-year-old Cody is aching to get back onto the pitch after he had a tumor removed from his leg last year. He tries out for the Lions and makes the team as a sub. Secretly Cody is relieved, since he hasn't told anyone on the team that he had cancer. But then there's a shakeup in team management and suddenly Cody has no choice but to play, even if his leg does begin to hurt. When he finally comes clean to his teammates about his disease and injury from the year before, they encourage him to trust his leg and his skill.

Cody is no longer the kid with cancer, or the soccer player always sitting on the bench as a substitute. Then everything changes when a skilled younger player is added to the team, bringing the chance for Cody and some of the Lions to get called up to an elite team. Plus, Cody has to face down bully Timothy from rival soccer team the Storm once and for all, help Mandy deal with her family troubles―and figure out what Cody Dorsett really wants. Following the characters who appear in his very successful novels Striker and The Beautiful Game, The Starting Eleven completes David Skuy's trilogy.

Cody and the Lions are playing great soccer, but the arrival of an international company to build a factory on a nearby lake splits the team in two: Cody and his teammates who worry the factory will pollute the lake vs. the players whose families will benefit from the opportunities the company will bring. Cody and his friends organize a marathon soccer game to bring attention to the environmental impact of the factory. The game tests Cody to the limits of his strength. But it also tests his friendship, teamwork, courage, and faith that he can deal with the emotional as well as the physical effects of surviving cancer.