Demi Liddle returns from ACL injury as co-captain

The horrendous injury footballers and athletes know all too well, struck Demi Liddle late April last year.

The 25 year old league vice-captain completely tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and partially tore her meniscus in the first few minutes of the early season game.

After an eleven-and-a-half-month recovery, she returned to the game in round 4, playing again with her team as co-captain.

“It was great to pull the jersey back on and captain the team on the day of my return. I couldn’t have asked for anything more,” Liddle said.

“I made sure I felt confident and comfortable in my knee…but it’s impossible not to have the injury in the back of your mind.”

Throughout Liddle’s recovery, her teammates have supported her and have constantly checked in, even being her driver for trainings and games.

Many football players know the challenges and implications of an ACL tear, making Liddle’s team mates uniquely positioned to truly understand her struggles.

“It’s a lonely little journey that you go through no matter how much support you get,” Liddle said.

“People think the recovery is linear, in reality it isn’t.”

During Liddle’s recovery she experienced the highs and lows of re-learning to walk, run and exercise. She felt the achievement and pride when she was able to walk and weight bear through her knee again, and the lows of not hitting recovery milestones as quickly as she aspired to.

Liddle experienced great pain in her recovery, which made it more challenging to reach her goals and milestones.

“I definitely put pressure on myself to hit milestones early, it’s hard not to compare your recovery to everyone else’s,” Liddle said.

“My teammates were a great support. They visited me in the early days of my recovery but also celebrated milestones with me.”

Throughout the ups and downs of recovery Liddle stayed focused on her goal, to get back to the game she loved. She started training in the gym barely a week after her operation and trained 5 days a week in the gym throughout the rehab, sometimes training twice a day.

On the day of the injury, Liddle backed into a contest and as she landed, another player landed on her knee. Liddle hit the ground as her knee buckled, feeling a pop and twisting sensation in her injured knee.

“I was under so much shock, my brain was trying hard not to think the worst,” Liddle said.

The next day, as Liddle walked on crutches, her knee feeling sore and unstable, she began to realise she had torn her ACL.

A few days later after an MRI the physio confirmed Liddle’s suspicions.

“I’d been lucky throughout my years of playing football and basketball to never have a major injury,” Liddle said.

“Naively, you think it won’t happen, why would it happen to you?”

Now as Liddle is back playing for the team she loves, despite the painful, exhausting recovery, she feels privileged to be able to play sport.

“It’s easy to forget the journey it took to get back here,” Liddle said.

“It has taken a lot of work over the last eleven and a half months, lots of tears and not so good days.”

“I owe my body a lot to heal from a point of not being able to bend my leg enough to walk over a hurdle. It is an incredible journey that your body goes through…I put in the work and have got back here.”

Liddle has played every game since round 4 and is continuing to overcome the fear of being injured in a contest each week.

By Ava Rawlings