An innocuous ankle roll at the worst possible moment brought Eliza McNamara’s world crashing down weeks before her third footy season.
The Melbourne winger was set for a breakout campaign off a quick turnaround from the April 2022 grand final loss to Adelaide, in which she had a team-high 14 kicks as her elite running power came to the fore on a stifling hot afternoon.
But when the Demons stunned Brisbane to snatch their first AFLW premiership at Brighton Homes Arena months later, they did so without the rising star, who had spent the start of the season learning to walk again.
Just over a year ago, McNamara collapsed under a 60kg barbell when her right ankle gave way as she completed box step-ups in the gym with her teammates.
She suffered compression fractures of the L1 and T12 vertebrae in her spine, causing internal bleeding and neural damage that led a doctor to assume she had…