My Account
After what she has been through, Stacey Martin says she will never take playing football for granted again.
The Hibiscus Coast women’s captain ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her knee while training in 2020 and it took her 12 months to recover and get back to playing the game she loves.
She vividly remembers the feeling of her first training reuniting with her team-mates.
“I have never been happier,” says the 27-year-old who grew up in Stanmore Bay. I had missed it so much.”
In November 2020, Martin was selected for the Northern Lights to play in the National League and during training at Glenfield she went down in a heap with no one around her.
“I went to tackle someone, and turned to run away with the ball and collapsed to the ground,” she says. “I knew straight away I had done my ACL. I was lying on my side and it hit me that I was going to be out for a long time.”
The next morning her worst fears were confirmed when she was assessed by a physiotherapist and underwent X-rays and an MRI scan.
The former Whangaparāoa College student had ruptured the trifecta of knee ligaments – ACL, PCL (posterior cruciate ligament), and MCL (medial collateral ligament) – and a month later she had reconstruction surgery.
During her recovery, Martin damaged her meniscus (knee cartilage) and had to have a second surgery.
Martin remembers the pain of having to learn how to walk again.
“I had to start everything again,” she says. “Even running or kicking the ball for the first time, you feel so uncoordinated. Do I even remember how to do this?”
It was a hugely challenging period, and she was unable to work in her role as a nurse for eight weeks.
Unfortunately, Martin was not alone. Four other players in her team also had ACL reconstructions in recent times. One of them had the same injury on both legs.
“I reassured them of the process they were going through and helped them with the mental struggles. I was there to talk if they needed me. It’s a lonely process coming back from this injury.”
Martin has introduced the team to strength training programmes and activation routines as well as completing the 11 plus warm-up before every training and game. The warm up is a key component of the NZ Football Performance and Prevention programme.
“It’s so important, especially for the young ones. It’s their routine now and it will set them up. When our team comes to training, they know exactly what to do,” Martin says.
After winning the league and the Carol Waller Cup, in 2022, this season the Hibiscus Coast women are competing with the best in the northern region in the women’s NRFL premier league.
Martin says it has been a step up.
“Over the years we’ve seen young players grow up on the Coast and then leave for bigger clubs – which is something that I did – but it’s nice to know the youth in this area have something to look up to and aim for.”
Fact Box: In 2022, ACC accepted nearly 40,000 claims for football-related injuries. • The greatest increase is in females aged 15-19 years, with the incidence increasing by 120 percent between 2009 and 2019. • To help prevent these injuries, ACC partners with NZ Football to deliver the NZF Performance and Prevention programme.
