Adelaide Football Club’s women’s co-captain Chelsea Randall gets back to running as she eyes a 2021 return after tearing her ACL
Two-time premiership winning Crows co-captain Chelsea Randall on returning from an ACL, the challenges that 2020 has brought and the newest love to come into her life.
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Crows AFLW co-captain Chelsea Randall has revealed she’s started running again as she rehabs the anterior cruciate ligament she tore on the first night of women’s pre-season in November.
Her running style might be little more than a “grandpa shuffle” for now, but Randall says when she started with a 30-seonds-on/30-seconds-off routine a fortnight ago, it was such a significant step in her rehab, that she started crying.
“I shared that moment with Courtney Cramey who was running alongside me at the time and she was like: ‘This is quite a momentous occasion for you, mate’ and I may have burst into tears a little bit,” the 28-year-old All-Australian defender said.
“I never thought I would be so happy to run.”
A lot has changed in the fortnight since Randall started running again with the COVID-19 crisis wreaking havoc: the AFLW league has been shut down without declaring a 2020 premier; the men’s competition has been suspended for two months; and as the AFL industry as a whole hangs on a knife-edge, around 80 per cent of staff at the Adelaide Football Club have been stood down.
Randall will be spending her time in self-isolation tending to a new addition in her family: a two-month-old koolie-cross-kelpie puppy Lenny.
But despite all the love for her new “fur baby” (who joins eight-year-old Koda in the Randall household), there’s no denying this year has been challenging from both a club perspective – the reigning premiers failed to make finals with only two wins from six games – and on a personal level with her fight back to full fitness after she tore her ACL and underwent a knee reconstruction around Christmas time.
Despite not being able to play footy in 2020, she retained the co-captaincy alongside Erin Phillips, and was given a midfield coaching job, which she did on the bench during games.
“(Rehab has) been challenging,” Randall said.
“You just want to be there for your teammates as best as you possibly can and when you’ve got a leadership role and a coach’s hat on, plus rehab that’s two-to-three hours a day, it can really take up your time.
“I was trying to do my sessions in the morning so I wouldn’t be in the gym when the girls came to training and I could actually be out there on the track, rather than isolating myself from the group.”
Crows coach Matthew Clarke said Randall had unsurprisingly proved herself a “star” throughout her rehab.
“She’s very diligent, very thorough, very professional and attacks it with great energy, surprise, surprise hey?,” he said.
“All of our (injured) players will be well and truly available if and when (AFLW returns in 2021), and she’ll be leading the charge.”
Originally published as Adelaide Football Club’s women’s co-captain Chelsea Randall gets back to running as she eyes a 2021 return after tearing her ACL