Super Netball 2025: Sasha Glasgow reflects on her journey back to the court as she prepares for a long-awaited return

A horrific fracture in her leg, not only threatened Sasha Glasgow’s netball career, but her overall lifestyle. This is a story of ‘mental resilience’ to a long-awaited club debut.

Sasha Glasgow has overcome “horrific” pain and trauma in her leg, the unknown of whether she would ever play netball again, conquer the fear of pushing her body and going back to “square one” relearning how to walk.

But after a mental and physical “tug of war” on and off court over the past 14 months, the star goaler is finally ready for her long-awaited Melbourne Mavericks debut.

The premiership winner with the West Coast Fever missed all of the Mavericks’ inaugural Super Netball season in 2024 after suffering a shocking leg fracture in a pre-season practice match in February last year.

lasgow will debut for Mavericks after missing all of the team’s first season with a serious leg injury. Picture: David Crosling

Almost a year and a half after first signing on with the new Melbourne franchise, Glasgow is trying to keep her emotions “bottled in” before the Mavericks’ season-opening match against the Sunshine Coast Lightning.

“It has been a long time coming,” Glasgow said.

“There is so much excitement and just relief I think for me to be back playing netball and doing what I love.

“I am proud of the journey that I have gone on. I really hold my head high, knowing I have done so much work behind the scenes to get myself back into this position.

“It wasn’t easy. It took a lot of mental resilience to get back here.

Glasgow during the recent Suncorp Team Girls Cup. Picture: Sarah Reed/Getty Images

“Yes, debuting for the club is super important, but just being a part of this team with these girls is what has been my massive driving force, so I am just so excited to just finally get out there with them.

“It is going to be a little bit emotional I reckon post-game on Saturday because we are going to keep that all bottled in before the game and then just celebrate afterwards.”

It has been a challenging path back to Super Netball for Glasgow.

After surgery to insert a titanium rod and four screws in her broken leg, followed by an arduous recovery which initially had Glasgow questioning if she would make it back to the netball court, she admitted she had been nervous about returning to the game after so long out.

Sasha Glasgow’s broken leg X-ray. Pic: Instagram/sashaglasgow

While she has done everything she can to be ready, she acknowledged she was going to need time to “find her feet again”.

“I think I am just nervous because every year that I have been part of the SSN, the standard of the game has just grown so much,” Glasgow said.

“Obviously being out of it for a year, there are just those nerves of ‘Yes, I am capable, but (I’m) just finding my feet again’.

“Naturally I get a bit nervous before a game because I want to do really well, but there are just those extra bit of nerves because it has been a while.”

Glasgow was initially thrown when she saw the Mavericks would be facing the Lightning – the team she was playing when she was injured in the practice match – in the opening round.

But she is now glad she is going to get this match out of the way at the start of the season.

“When I got the fixture, I was like ‘Isn’t that classic’ and I kind of had a moment that I was like ‘Oh no, I can’t believe it is that team’” Glasgow said.

“It’s actually not a bad thing either, it just gets it out of the way and I’m not going to believe in the juju around it, it’s actually going to be a good thing.

“Maybe I’ll just use it as a circle of life vibe – did my leg against them, did all the rehab and now I get to play them the first time.”

Glasgow is ready to take on the Lightning. Picture: David Crosling

THE RECOVERY

Reflecting on her journey back to the court, Glasgow said the injury had taken a massive physical and mental toll.

“Mentally it took a massive toll …. I was unsure what my rehab would look like and whether or not I would be able to actually play again,” Glasgow said.

“I felt like I was kind of grieving things and opportunities that I had taken and then they got taken away from me.

“Then physically, it was really hard. I’m not going to lie. I was really sore and people were like ‘You’ve broken a bone, you’re allowed to be sore’. But I was like this is pain that I had never experienced before.

“When I did my ACL (in 2019) …. it was done in 30 seconds, but the pain I felt around my leg and the trauma around that was quite horrific, so that took me a while to get over.

“Then I was just learning how to push my body again because I was scared. I think it has been both like a tug of war physically and mentally.

“It was devastating, but once I was finally finding my feet again, I felt a lot more confident in my body again, which was really reassuring.”

Glasgow said the career-threatening fracture had made her realise how simple things in life were taken for granted.

“When I said that I literally had to learn to walk again, I had to do some gait training to make sure that I wasn’t compensating,” Glasgow said.

“You go back to square one, I’m taking for granted the fact that I could walk to a coffee shop and I couldn’t do that. Even a basic necessity.

“I could not sleep at a certain angle, I had to go back to being so stagnant in all parts of my life. I think that was really scary.

“It took a lot away from me and then it took a long time for me to feel like I got back up on my feet again.”

THE SUPPORT 

Throughout it all, Glasgow’s Mavericks’ teammates had been a constant source of support, but one in particular – her rehab partner and defender Lauren Parkinson (nee Moore).

Parkinson suffered a season-ending ACL injury the month after Glasgow broke her leg and has been with the goaler along every step of the rehab journey.

Glasgow competes for the ball during the Team Girls Cup in Adelaide. Picture: Sarah Reed/Getty Images

“She is just one of my soul friends for life. She said to me yesterday, ‘Remember when we said that we didn’t know if we were going to play netball again?’ and we both had a bit of an emotional moment,” Glasgow said.

“So much of me wanted to do it (make her return) at the same time as ‘Lozzy’ but we knew that may not have been the case.

“She is so close and I am just so excited for her, her opportunity is not too far away.

“I genuinely don’t think I would be back in the position and loving my netball as much if it was not for her.”

Just as Glasgow prepares to make her return, her fellow English international and Mavericks goaler Eleanor Cardwell has been ruled out for more than two months after a second round of knee surgery in half a year.

“I was so devo for her. People didn’t realise how close El was (to returning), all the work that she was doing behind the scenes and getting herself into that position,” Glasgow said.

“What she chose to do last year to get that surgery done to get herself in the best position to be able to play this year, it is so gut-wrenching that was taken away from her.

“Sport is so cruel like that. I feel like ‘How can it happen again? That is so unfair because she worked so hard’.

“We got a little taste of playing in England (together) and it was so fun and we were excited about how much we were going to be able to grow on our combination in the Mavs environment, but not meant to be.

“But I have all faith that she is going to be out there at some point this season.”

Originally published as Super Netball 2025: Sasha Glasgow reflects on her journey back to the court as she prepares for a long-awaited return