back on court

Its been 8 weeks since Annie broke the bone in her foot during the first netball match of the season. (post here) and today was her first match back on the court.

She had 4 weeks of no training by order of the physio, then 2 weeks of straight running on the court while strapped up (no dodging or cutting) but was able to get back into some of the ball skills, then 2 weeks of starting to dodge and cut, again with it strapped. This last week was her first full training session with the rest of the team, with one week of no training as it was an association match.

She's been itching to get back onto the court, but at the expense of cutting her long fingernails. She has awesome nails out of netball season and they had grown again since she's been off court.

Annie played the first quarter and took her a while to slip back into it. I think she was very conscious of her foot and the feeling of the strapping supporting it. She was off for the second quarter to rest it, and back on the third quarter.

This is when she fired up. I'm thinking that she forgot about her foot and started her solid intercepts and started really playing. It was so wonderful to see her really get her teeth into it.

The last quarter was sitting on the bench to rest it. There's no need to push it too fast, and its not like she's representing her country for a do or die effort. So I'm totally agreeing with the coach's thoughts as to slip her back into the game gently.

Was so good to see her back on court.