‘Worst injury I’ve ever seen’: How Sasha Glasgow, Melbourne Mavericks bounce back

When Melbourne Mavericks’ coach Tracey Neville spent an hour alongside shooter Sasha Glasgow after she snapped her tibia and fibula she thought the star might never play again. She talks to LINDA PEARCE about that injury, how Glasgow is still contributing, and the Mavericks’ progress.

Melbourne Mavericks’ coach Tracey Neville has described the shocking double leg fracture suffered by Sasha Glasgow as the worst injury she has seen in netball and admits she feared initially that the shooter may never play again.

Glasgow, 25, suffered a broken tibia and fibula during the second quarter of the Mavs’ February 16 practice match against the Sunshine Coast Lightning at their Waverley training venue in Waverley.

The game was eventually abandoned for “player welfare” reasons after Glasgow spent a sickening hour on court surrounded by privacy screens before being taken to hospital by ambulance.

Following a lengthy surgery the following day, Glasgow returned to her family home in South Australia and is now rehabilitating in Perth, where she spent three seasons with the West Coast Fever before joining the new Super Netball franchise.

“I went to see her the day after in the hospital, I thought, ‘This is going to be a long process’,’’ Neville said on Wednesday of SSN’s 2022 grand final MVP.

“She’s actually flown back to where her boyfriend lives in Perth at the moment and she just looks like a different person. She walked the other day for the first time, and I never actually thought having seen that break – the worst probably injury I’ve ever seen in netball – that she would be completely walking within, what, two weeks of the actual operation. And she’s a fighter.

Sasha Glasgow while playing for the Fever. She will spend part of her time with the Mavericks on the sidelines following a sickening leg break in a practice game. Picture: James Worsfold/Getty Images.

“Having seen her laid on that court for 60 minutes was pretty distressing for all of us and we have been going through a little bit of grief for that because it was something that you would never expect to see. But the medical team have given me some positivity because it’s an injury that potentially you can be back from in five to six months and you’re like ‘Well, from what I saw I actually thought she’d never play netball again.’’

However unlikely a 2024 return, Neville said it was premature to rule Glasgow completely out of a season that starts on April 14 against cross-town rivals the Vixens and finishes in Adelaide on August 3, despite the Mavericks currently casting the net wide for a replacement.

“It’ll all be based on where she is actually at, her rehabilitation, whether she has any complications, cos she actually has a screw in her leg,’’ Neville said. “This is an injury that I have never, ever dealt with in netball, so I am being truly guided by the surgeon, the medical team.

“But for me, when I saw her on that court on Saturday to have her actually walking in a boot on Wednesday that completely amazed me.

“And I just thought, ‘Jeez, like, you know, what is she gonna look (like)? There’s talk that she could be running in three months’. So I’m like, that is just extraordinary from what I saw and I still can’t get my head around it, to be honest … I’m like, ‘Oh, it’s better than an ACL. Well, it didn’t look that way on that day, I tell you. Jeez.’’

Inaugural Mavericks’ captain Amy Parmenter, who is being joined in the leadership group by deputy Eleanor Cardwell and defender Liv Lewis, admitted the loss of Glasgow from a potent shooting partnership with Cardwell was a major blow to the start-up franchise, only weeks after the pair had joined full training following the Nations Cup in England.

“To lose her that way, it really did feel like the culture was ‘If you’re hurting, we’re all hurting’, and that was quite special,’’ Parmenter said. “But we’re still missing her and it’s nice to see her with her support network and that she is doing so well, and hopefully we will have her back in uniform very soon.’’

Neville also paid tribute to the wider Mavericks group, including the medical staff, for what she said was an extraordinary “coming together”, as well as the supportive Lightning squad in enormously difficult circumstances.

England Coach Tracey Neville is taking the reins of the Melbourne Mavericks. Picture: Mark Evans

“But I think we’ve moved on as a team. And now she sends us little videos and makes us laugh, probably every day … She is quite the comic of the team.’’

As to who comes in for Glasgow, Neville stressed that the amount of time and thought it took to identify and assemble the original list has left her in no hurry to decide on this unforeseen list change.

“I was really clear with the 10 that they were the right players for the group, and now obviously, we’ve got this little bit of a hiccup. I just need time just to go away. Focus,’’ says the former England Roses coach and Adelaide Thunderbirds premiership assistant from 2023.

“Obviously, anything that we do now will change the style that we play, and I just need to make sure that the person that comes in is the right fit for the style and also the right person for the group, and that will take time.’’

Training partners Shimona Jok (nee Nelson) and Uneeq Palavi were both included in the squad for weekend practice games against the Giants, but only ex-Pies’ shooter Jok was given court-time, with Neville and her assistant Nicole Richardson planning to also monitor the City West Falcons pair in the early rounds of the Victorian Netball League.

The Mavericks are also looking further afield, to other VNL athletes, having already invited several to training. The Vixens are also yet to settle on a successor to pregnant Mwai Kumwenda, but have narrowed the choice to youngsters Emily Andrew and Lily Graham.

SSN clubs are also permitted to access training partners from opposition teams, and Neville said it would be remiss of her not to consider all options.

“Being new to Victoria, being new to the system, it was always something that I just wanted to take my time on. And I think rushing into decisions like that can really mess up the environment. So yeah, we are looking.

“And teams are holding some good shooters, so we’re just doing a little bit of a database check on all of them now, and that’s why I don’t want to rush into the decision.’’

Originally published as ‘Worst injury I’ve ever seen’: How Sasha Glasgow, Melbourne Mavericks bounce back