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The Knee
“It Was Doing All Kinds Of Funky Stuff!”
by Jeremy Ruane
New Zealand's female footballers have had more than their fair share of knee problems in recent seasons, and Bex is among those to have suffered along the way.
In her case, however, the problem was a very unusual one, and first occurred a matter of days after she arrived in New Zealand, prior to the squad's departure for the 2007 Women's World Cup Finals.
“We were playing in a training game against the boys. I stopped a shot with the outside of my foot and it twisted my knee. At that point I think it was probably just a pretty good bruise in my cartilage.
“It was quite sore but there was no diagnosis - it was kind of like a weird pain to work with. `If there's nothing else wrong with your knee then it must be cartilage' - that's what the doctors explained to me after it was eventually diagnosed, but at the time …
“So I kept playing, took a couple of days off, played again, knew something was wrong, but it didn't feel wrong to the point that I couldn't go - I could still do stuff”.
By this stage, Rebecca was able to play games without any strapping, but as soon as the final whistle went, she'd make a bee-line for the ice-box, and quickly became an easy figure to pick out post-match - she was the one with her right knee cocooned in an ice-bag!
“It was swelling quite a lot, which is always an indication that something's going on, and it progressively got worse after each game. Before the China game, our last match in the Finals, it was really sore, to the point where I didn't want to think about it. I just wanted to get through the ninety minutes, do my best and then have it thoroughly assessed afterwards.
“I knew at that point that there was something wrong in there, but was still pretty confused as to what it was. The doctors and the physios couldn't really pinpoint anything. I didn't think it was anything that bad either.
“But after the China game I couldn't walk! It was locking, it was clicking, it was popping … doing all kinds of funky stuff that you don't want to hear coming from your knee!”
After the World Cup Finals, New Zealand's captain was scheduled to return to Sweden, where the Damellsvenskan season had been put on hold to accommodate the quadrennial showcase of international women's football.
But given the state her knee was in after the China encounter, taking her place in Sunnana's starting line-up for the first game after the World Cup wasn't going to be an option.
“Upon returning to Sweden, I had an MRI scan directly. I then saw the doctor in Umea on the Tuesday, and he took one look at it and said, `We'll schedule you for surgery on Friday'.
“I had a chunk of cartilage missing, so had micro-fracture surgery - key-hole surgery. They drilled holes into the cartilage, and dug into it using a tool like a really fine pencil. What that does is promote the bleeding in the cartilage.
“After the operation, I was pretty much bed-ridden, and on crutches for two months, because I couldn't put any weight at all on my leg. That is not a fun experience, especially in the cold and ice of Sweden. I had ice-picks on the bottom of my crutches, it was so cold and slippery! Everywhere you went, there was ice and snow. It was awful”.
The recovery process wasn't fun, either. Spending six to eight hours of your day, every day, in a Constant Passive Motion machine allows you plenty of time to catch up on your reading, or DVDs and TV shows, but even so …
Rebecca, however, had one over-riding objective in mind as she was enduring this process. Every day was one day nearer a full recovery. Every day was also one day closer to the biggest sporting event in 2008, and there was no way a knee injury was going to prevent this young lady from representing New Zealand in Beijing.
“Every second they told me to be in that machine, I was in it! It's called a CPM Constant, and promotes the blood flow to the knee without putting any impact
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  In action for Sunnana SK
 Han Duan (China) and Rebecca contest possession during the 2007 Women's World Cup Finals
 Chasing down Lisa De Vanna in W-League action
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on it. Had I put impact on the knee, the hole would have hardened and become more bone-like.
“Because I didn't have any impact, and kept the blood flowing, it turned into a softer form of cartilage which protects the existing cartilage. The whole process is very interesting. I never knew it existed, to be honest, until I went through with the surgery.
“With cartilage, it's always a dodgy injury which could go both ways. It could end your career right there, or you could be fine. But you're always going to have issues.
“The anterior cruciate ligament is the one everyone hears about, because it's the whole reconstructive surgery, which normally takes 6-8 months to come back from on a normal rehab programme.
“You can be weight-bearing a day after surgery if you want, so you're still getting stimulation in the muscle. I had two months of nothing. Normally I would have been two months behind an ACL recovery, but I really wanted to come back and play in the Olympics …”
Cue the rehabilitation programme from hell! “Any time you're on crutches and are non-weight-bearing for two months means a huge rehab. My left leg was normal, but my right leg muscles wasted away. My leg was so thin, it went right down to the bone.
“As soon as the stitches were removed, two weeks after surgery, I was in the pool doing leg lifts and the like, a minimum of twice a day, religiously. Ditto the gym work, where I was doing all kinds of weights for the rest of my body.
“Everything revolved around my knee. Every decision I made each day, from the time I woke up to the time I went to bed at night, was all to do with my knee. Everything I put into my body, for instance.
“I started taking more glucosamine, which research shows helps cartilage. I didn't drink any alcohol. I just worked really hard and focused on the Olympics”.
And the outcome? The sparkling eyes and mile-wide smile are a dead giveaway that there's an understatement heading our way! “I was back playing after six months, which was pretty good!
“I've since been back to see the doctors, of course, and they're pretty pleased with how my rehab has gone and my knee has recovered. They're pretty stoked about it, actually. It was a very successful surgery and rehab - it worked out well”.
While the hard work is behind her, and she's back playing again, the injury has left Rebecca with a legacy from which she'll never escape.
“If I don't take care of it, and don't do strength training at least once a week, plus explosive training and plyometrics, I get problems with my knee - it just aches. So I have to keep the muscles strong around my leg and butt.
“I had some tests done prior to my first game back, and again before I left Sweden, and there was about a 30% deficit in strength between my right and left legs before my first game.
“Ideally you shouldn't play with that sort of deficit, but I looked strong and felt pretty good, so they cleared me to play gradually. When I left Sweden at the end of the season, the deficit was down to 8%, so it's pretty good now”.
But what will Rebecca be like in thirty years time, when her footballing days are over and retirement of the pension payment variety is on the horizon?
“It's a good question. You always think about that, and the sacrifices you make with your body when you're playing, but for me it's worth it. As long as when I have kids I can run around and chase them, and the doctors are saying that's still possible and my knee still feels good, then I'll be fine - that's all I really care about.
“I don't need to play till I'm fifty, but quality of life, being able to run around with my kids, and playing till I can't play anymore, that's all I'm looking at”.
In the third part of this interview, Rebecca shares “A Phenomenal Experience” with us - a very special period in the history of New Zealand women's football, and the Football Ferns in particular.
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