COURT REPORT
GEELONG netball star Kelsey Browne has opened up on the moment she realised she had ruptured her ACL in Saturday’s clash against NSW Swifts.
The Collingwood vice-captain and Australian Diamond midcourt gun went down during the 64-56 win, with scans confirming the worst earlier this week.
It means Browne will miss finals should the Magpies do enough in their last home-andaway game this week against cross-town rivals Melbourne Vixens, as well as most of the 2020 season, but she is taking comfort from the fact she will be able to spend time in rehab with sister Madi, who remarkably suffered a ruptured ACL earlier in the year.
“I’m actually not too bad surprisingly, going in quite blind into quite a serious injury,” Browne said on RSN’s The Breakfast Club.
“I have had so many messages and people hitting me up and telling me what to expect.
“I am pumped for the Magpies this weekend (against Melbourne Vixens), I think we have some good form going in and hopefully there is a finals berth, so I am just focusing on that stuff.
“Obviously I fell down and pretty much knew straight away. It is quite interesting when you have never done one, knowing almost instantly that that is how it feels, but I went off the court and I think my parents were more distraught than I was because they do know what is ahead.
“They have been through the last four months with Madi, she is going through her second one and it has been hard but Madi has been absolutely amazing. I think secretly even though she would not wish this on me, it is pretty cool that we are going to be going through the same thing.
“Our bond is pretty special and I reckon this is only going to make it stronger.”
Browne was a key player in the Diamonds’ World Cup campaign last month in England but was in the news more recently for an off-court exchange with Collingwood coach Rob Wright.
The 27-year-old revealed the challenges that have come since the World Cup and the conversation that was picked up by Channel 9 cameras, but said her relationship with Wright was as strong as ever.
“I am not going to lie, it was quite challenging for me,” she said.
“I knew what was happening between Rob and I and I know that our relationship is super strong. People can say that it didn’t look like that, but I think Rob and I have one of the strongest relationships at the Magpies and we have worked really hard on it.
“He will often tell me everything I need to improve on, he will give me positives as well and I guess that in that moment there was a miscommunication and it was what it was.
“We talked about it and then everything eventuated from that. Within the club it was over and done within an hour.”