You’ve had quite the year. Talk us through the rehab journey for your ACL injury and what it means to be back in action

I didn’t really know what to expect. I really enjoyed the whole entire process of it, figuring out how hard I can push my body and my knee and dealing with pain isolation and all of those things.

I had a stint at Channel 10 helping with the coverage for the Asian Cup which was a lot of fun, which kept me connected to the Matildas. I think the hardest thing for me during that period was that I got my body ready and was able to come back a lot earlier than I thought I was going to be able to at nine months but was stuck in that process of being game ready. I’ve been training with the team for a very long time but being game ready has been a longer process for me, around three months.

I’m just really excited to get out on the pitch and get game fit because you can’t really replicate that at training. It’s more like a whole new chapter for me now, I’ve put the rehab behind so it’s now the chapter of finally being able to get back into playing, so I’m really excited for that

What did you learn from it mentally?

I’ve been blessed unfortunately with a lot of injuries, this one taught me more about life outside of football, this injury was more about surrounding you with people who care about you most, people in your circle, in your corner who really want you to be the best.

Also surrounding, yourself with the best of the best physios, if you want to come back faster and better you need the best physios, athletic trainers, facilities. These are the things that are going to put you in the right mind frame to remind you that you are the athlete that you are and that you will be back to that point one way or another.

What are you looking forward to most about being back in the ALW?

Honestly, just playing. It’s been a while since I’ve played in the A-League Women so the amount of investment that’s gone into this season. How far it’s developed and all the new faces, there are so many new faces in the league so I’m very excited to play amongst a lot of home grown players.

What can we expect from this new Western United side?

A lot of passion, drive and desire. That’s why I picked to go to them because that’s something that really feeds into who I am and how I play. I’m really looking forward to having the underdog mentality and coming out and kind of sticking it to the other teams

How’s the environment been in such a fresh team setup?

I’ll tell you when I get there, I arrive there tomorrow! I came straight from the US, straight into the Matildas camp. I met the girls for about an hour and a half at an appearance while I was in camp.

Tomorrow I’ll meet all the girls, have my first training session

Where do you think Western United will end up when the season finishes?

I’m not too sure, I’ve said to Mark (Torcaso), our coach, that I don’t really want to have expectations. The thing about a new team and what’s exciting is that we are going to have a lot of firsts. And these firsts are the things that we are really going to need to take into our stride.

It will be really exciting; I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people. We did really well in pre-season. We had two wins, we’ve got a couple of really good signings so it’s going to be an exciting, hopefully surprising year.

Finally, who do you think will win the competition?

Us!

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