Rugby league inspiration Elianna Walton goes from wheelchair to World Cup in two years
TWO years ago she couldn’t walk. Next month, Elianna Walton will play in the World Cup in the green and gold of Australia’s women’s rugby league team, the Jillaroos.
The Express
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TWO years ago she couldn’t walk. Next month she plays in the World Cup in the green and gold of Australia’s women’s rugby league team, the Jillaroos.
Elianna Walton’s stunning comeback from a concussion injury which left her paralysed down one side underlines her determination and how much the sport means to her.
The 32-year-old Lakemba mother of two collapsed at work while ministering to the needs of disabled people a month after being involved in two head clashes while playing for her club side Greenacre.
MRI scans showed a blood clot on the brain and she was rushed to Canterbury Hospital.
When she lost all sensation in her left side she was rushed to Concord Hospital for more specialist treatment.
“I felt like the world was spinning. My head was throbbing and I kept falling to the left side. I was diagnosed with post severe concussion syndrome,” she said.
“I had to be taught how to walk again. I was bedridden for seven months.
“The occupational therapist asked why I was crying. I said, ‘I play rugby league for Australia and I can’t walk. Why do you think I’m crying?’
“The doctor told me, ‘You will never play contact sport again’. I told him where to go. This World Cup means the world. That’s how much I love footy.”
It will be the third time the Auckland-born prop has been picked for the World Cup and the second time she will appear.
The first time in 2009 she withdrew to marry her husband Mitchell.
The second time in 2013 she played every game as Australia went on to beat New Zealand in the final in Leeds.
This time is when it gets really interesting because not only will she be playing against the nation where she was born but she could well be facing one or even both of her sisters.
Her sister Stephanie, 22, also a prop, is likely to be playing for the Cook Islands, Australia’s first opponent, as their father is a Cook islander.
“She is like a mini me. She lives with me and she trains with me,” said Eli.
“Everything we do, we do the same. It’s going to be a good matchup.”
Her other sister Eliza, 25, could also be in Cook Islands colours. And to make things even more unusual, Eli was the head coach who steered Cook Islands into the World Cup in the first place.
Eli comes from a rugby league family. Her mother and grandmother both played club football.
She was sent as a 15-year-old to Brisbane’s Wavell State High School, a rugby league specialist school where superstar Greg Inglis was a class ahead of her.
“I used to wag class to go to gym with the boys,” she remembers.
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