Kyah Simon’s injury hell: ‘Harder than my ACL, two should reco’s, broken leg’
She’s already fought her way back from an ACL injury, two shoulder reconstructions and a broken leg, but Kyah Simon’s bid to prove her fitness for a third World Cup is her hardest recovery yet.
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In more ways than one, the World Cup is so close Kyah Simon can almost touch it.
As the Matildas star’s rehab reaches its crescendo, now she has the chance to prove her readiness for the global showpiece in June, for what would be her third World Cup.
The chance to see the World Cup trophy itself at Circular Quay on Sunday — on a whistlestop global tour of qualified nations — was another reminder of why she has put in hour after hour, day after day of rehab in the past four months, even if superstition forbade her from touching it.
Since damaging the syndesmosis in her ankle in December, the striker has ploughed a lonely but determined furrow in the gym at Melbourne City’s training ground in a bid to make certain she will be ready for selection by Ante Milicic in his squad to take on the world’s best.
It is the latest in a list of injuries long enough to dampen anyone’s spirits — she’s lost almost three years of her career to surgeries — but the silver lining for Simon is that she knows both her body and the routines necessary to limit recovery time without compromising her strength afterwards.
BELOW: KYAH SIMON’S HORRIFIC INJURY TOLL REVEALED
“For me it’s not so much a worry about being ready (for the World Cup), as I know that my body will be ready,” she said. “It’s more of a stressful time of being on a time frame, and how hard I’ve been working.
“You gain confidence from how you work, and that’s given me a little boost — that’s down to me, I’m accountable for how hard I work.
“I’ve had stressful times from thinking about the time frame and thinking too far ahead. I have to remind myself to bring back to this particular day, how hard can I train and how hard can I push my body. Do it today, with the focus of the World Cup in June.”
Simon is well used to fighting back from injury, ever since a broken leg delayed her entry to NSWIS on a scholarship as a teenager.
Two shoulder reconstructions in a year, a complicated ACL and myriad other issues have not stopped her playing at two World Cups already. But this, she says, has been the hardest recovery because the stakes were so high.
“When I did my shoulders, I said that was the hardest rehab I’d had to do,” she said. “But this has been the most stressful and the hardest mentally for me.
“Never before have I been on a time frame to be ready for something so close, and something I want so badly. This has been harder than my ACL, my two should reco’s, my broken leg.
“I’m still trying to stay as focused as I can, as positive as I can. I’ve become a bit of a stress-head in the last 10 weeks or so but having the World Cup there has narrowed my focus — and my determination is at an all-time high.
“The opportunity to go to my third Women’s World Cup is really keeping me focused to do all I possibly can every day that I go into the club for rehab.”
The next step is match fitness, requiring temporary relocation to the US. “I’ll head over to America on April 9 to play for Houston Dash, which is where I play in the NAWSL,” she said.
“I should get a good five or six matches under my belt before our pre-World Cup tour in Turkey, and that’s my trial really, that’s my opportunity for Ante to see what kind of form I’m in, and for me to get some confidence and some form heading into such a crucial time.
“I feel I’m in the best condition of my career physically and mentally now, the fittest and sharpest I possibly could be.”
KYAH’S PAIN
2006 - broken leg - six months
2013 - ACL - 14 months
2017 - Two shoulder reconstructions - eight months
2018 - achilles tendinitis - six weeks
2018 - torn syndesmosis - four months
Total time out: 33.5 months
Originally published as Kyah Simon’s injury hell: ‘Harder than my ACL, two should reco’s, broken leg’
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