Stacey Day thought her playing career was over.
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I thought about not playing all of the time. Rehab is so hard.
- Stacey Day
She ruptured the Anterior Cruciate Ligament in her left knee ahead of the Newcastle Jets’ 2014-15 W-League season.
In her first run since having a knee reconstruction, in a trial match at the start of last season, she lasted 40 minutes then snapped the ACL in her right knee.
At the time the Maitland 28-year-old, who has made 61 W-League appearances, did not think she would ever get back on the pitch.
But on Sunday, she played the last 20 minutes of South Wallsend’s 5-0 win over Thornton at Walker Fields in Herald Women’s Premier League.
“I thought about not playing all of the time,” Day said.
“Rehab is so hard, especially when all of the girls are playing and I’m having surgery. I’ve said all along if I ever did it I wouldn’t come back, because I’m not the rehab type. But I’ve done two now and I’ve proved myself wrong.”
Day felt “a bit rusty” on Sunday but showed plenty of class, including nearly scoring with a well-struck free kick, in her brief cameo.
“It’s been killing me to get out there and, with all of the washouts, the nerves have been around for about two weeks now, and it’s good to finally get out there,” she said.
“Obviously I’m still a little bit rusty and the cobwebs are still there but as I get more game time hopefully they’ll go. A lot of it now is mental. I know I’ve done rehab up to this point and there’s not much more I can do physically.”
She credited the support of her club and teammates for getting her back on the field.
“This is a good group of girls and that culture in the club makes it easier to want to turn up,” Day said. “I guess if that wasn’t here I would question again if it was worth still playing but that made me keen to get back.”
The journey is far from over for the towering defender, who said physiotherapy remains “ongoing”.
But the return was enough to spark a desire in the Maitland-based dump truck driver to get back to elite level.
“I would like to play for the Jets again but with work, because I’m on shift work now, I don’t know whether that’s possible,” Day said.
“They’ve also filtered a lot of younger ones through, so whether there’s room for me I don’t know, that’s something that I would have to talk to [Jets coach Craig Deans] Deansy about. Even if I could keep my foot in the door and train with them and get that level back would be good.”
