Netball star Lynsey Gallagher hopes to be nearing the end of a frustrating two-years out through injury, but says she has to be realistic about recovery from invasive knee surgery.
The Sirens and Scottish Thistles star damaged her lateral meniscus in February 2021, and when it flared up again in September, underwent microfracture surgery in November, which is an articular cartilage repair surgical technique that involves creating tiny fractures in the underlying bone.
It has been frustrating, and a slog at times, but Gallagher, 30, says she has to be careful with her rehabilitation.
“Things are moving along quite nicely,” she said. “I’m still putting a lot of hours in the gym, from a strength and conditioning perspective, but moving in the right direction.
“We’re taking things nice and slowly so we don’t irritate the knee. It’s just trying to make sure it’s back to full strength, before we progress it any further forward.
“We had been pushing for different goals. Initially it was the Barbados test, then the Commonwealth Games, World Cup qualifiers, and then the South Africa test and that put a lot of pressure on my knee to bounce back really quickly, considering it was quite an invasive surgery.
“With the flare-ups that it did have, we just didn’t give it as much time as we needed, and in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games we needed to look at how we can do this and not end up wrecking my knee.
“It has taken a lot of trial and error, because it’s essentially a new knee, and it’s trying to figure out what it likes and what it doesn’t like, and what the new normal is.”
Gallagher added: “Some weeks you have really good weeks, you’re moving forward, and then there can be wee flare-ups that set you back.
“It’s about being realistic. It’s not something we can put a time line on. We’re pushing as much as we can, and every week I’m ticking boxes and moving in a positive direction.
“It has been frustrating, because you see everybody else running, or out on the netball court, and you can’t get out there. I’m doing everything from my end that I can possibly do for strength and conditioning and physio, what the coaching and management staff are asking me to do.”
After two years out of action, Gallagher just wants to get back to playing at whatever level she can.
She said: “I need to take the small wins just now, and slowly but surely they will build up, and it ends up being something a lot bigger.
“I need to keep pushing forward, be resilient, and do everything I’m told to do.
“That has pretty much been two years. As an athlete you want to be out there, playing at the highest level that you can be, competing and training against the girls, and being out there on the court.
“But I have to be realistic. The knee is so unpredictable, but as long as I’m ticking boxes at my end, that will hopefully get me to where I want to be.”
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