Firebirds star Kim Ravaillion opens up on painful back scare, injury battle and possible return date

At the low point of her injury hell, just driving to daycare became unbearable for Kim Ravaillion. The Firebirds star opens up to EMMA GREENWOOD about the debilitating back scare, surgery and her netball future.

Kim Ravaillion has conceded there’s a chance she could miss the entire Super Netball season after undergoing surgery on a ruptured disc in her back.

The former Diamonds midcourter was rushed in for an operation on a herniated disc just before Christmas after a gym mishap that left her in severe pain and without feeling in her foot in a “very scary and eye-opening moment”.

Ravaillion is such a competitor she is determined to be fit to take the court in the Queensland Firebirds’ season opener against defending premiers Adelaide Thunderbirds on April 13.

But after a microdiscectomy – a procedure to relieve pressure on the nerves around the lowest two vertebrae in her lower back – just days before Christmas, Ravaillion has received a wake-up call about her health and won’t rush her recovery.

“I feel better than I ever have but I’m literally taking it day by day,” Ravaillion said of her return to elite competition.

“Like the surgeon said to me: ‘You’ve got to remember that you don’t have a great back; you’ve got to remember that you just had more than half of your disc taken out and you’ve just got to be careful’.

It’s a long road to recovery for Ravaillion. Picture: Getty Images

“I just want to be 100 per cent confident when I get back out on court – if I get back out on court.”

The 30-year-old has been gritting her teeth for the past two seasons to put up with back pain that had become a constant companion.

But a gym mishap in December forced Ravaillion to see a specialist and she was rushed in for surgery to a ruptured disc that was impacting the nerves around the L4 and L5 vertebrae in her lower back.

“My last two seasons I have had really bad back pain and inflammation in my lower back but I didn’t think it was as bad because I was just so used to being in pain,” she said.

“I’d just kind of grit my teeth and got out there. I think when you have adrenaline, the back pain sits in the back seat and you don’t think about it when you’re competing.

“But we had a long off-season this time around and obviously we were in limbo (given the ongoing pay war with Netball Australia) so I was training pretty hard to ... be ready for the season ahead.

The Firebirds finished last season in seventh. Picture: Getty Images

“One gym session I did a squat and it just did not feel right.

“I woke up in the middle of the (following) night and my foot had gone numb – I had no feeling in my foot.”

Appointments with the physio and doctor the following day were followed by an MRI and “excruciating sciatic pain” that was so severe Ravaillion was forced to pull over when driving her daughter to daycare because even sitting was unbearable.

Two days later she was in surgery to avoid the risk of permanent damage.

“It was very scary. Very much an eye opening moment for me,” she said.

She’s not yet sure when she will return to competition but will not push her recovery.

Informed she had at one point in her interview used the phrase “if I get back out on court”, Ravaillion said only time would tell.

Ravaillion has won gold at both a Netball World Cup and Commonwealth Games. Picture: Getty Images

“My health is definitely my priority,” she said.

“The last thing I want to do is injure myself again. I’ll just go when I’m feeling 100 per cent and hopefully that’s before round 1.

“Then I will be out there on the court, but time will tell.”

Twelve weeks post surgery, Ravaillion is free of pain for the first time in years and only now realising how debilitating it had become.

“The back’s going good, it’s just really about getting my leg going again because obviously I lost a bit of nerve action in my leg,” she said.

“But the doctor seems happy, the physios are happy and I’m at full training now, so it’s really up to me.

“It was a pretty big surgery. Recovery has been painful because my back feels great but I’m also learning to do everything again.

“It’s pretty much ‘go time’. But with this injury, it’s pretty serious. I’ve got to be very careful. I can’t just rush.”

Ravaillion’s back had been a ticking time bomb.

For a player whose entire career had been built on a foundation of strength and fitness, it’s been a rude awakening.

There have been positive signs in recovery Picture: Getty Images

“Even seeing the surgeon ... He was like, ‘you’ve got a pretty bad back’,” she said.

“So I thought, well, what are my priorities? Obviously, being a mum and making sure that I can run around with (daughter) Georgie.

“That was a real eye-opener. There’s other ways to train than punish yourself.”

It’s one of the messages Ravaillion will be passing on to her younger Firebirds teammates, along with the tactical nous to compete in the midcourt if she’s not physically alongside them when the opening centre pass of the season is taken.

Under the banner of netball’s time-honoured mantra, the Firebirds’ most experienced player will usher through the next generation of players and hopefully be ready to take her own spot this season in a team that is determined to prove its many doubters wrong.

“At the moment what I’m doing to get through is like I’m really trying to coach Macy (centre Macy Gardner) and the other girls to be the best midcourters they can be,” she said.

“I’ve been there and done that and then when my time does come I can come back on and I should be there if they need.

“The old ‘here if you need’.”

Originally published as Firebirds star Kim Ravaillion opens up on painful back scare, injury battle and possible return date