BISHOP RARING TO JOIN ACTION

STAR centre Abby Bishop is confident she’ll be cleared to make her long-awaited Townsville Fire debut tonight after training strongly as she recovers from a concussion.

The Fire’s prized recruit has been in Townsville since June as she played for the Flames in the QBL, but she had to watch last weekend’s WNBL opening round from the sidelines after a training mishap.

Bishop has been on the court every day this week as she works through the concussion protocols and is optimistic she’ll be ready to take on the Adelaide Lightning at Townsville Stadium.

“It was just an accidental, unlucky knock – wrong place, wrong time kind of thing – and knocked me around a little bit, but I’m on the mend now,” Bishop said.

“It will be nice to have another body back for the girls if I can be cleared to play, and nice just for me to be back out on court and running around and playing basketball.”

Bishop admitted it was frustrating to miss last weekend’s 81-72 loss to Southside in Dandenong and the Fire struggled to match the Flyers in the paint without their 191cm centre.

Fire vice-captain Tess Madgen played 40 minutes after they were forced into the late reshuffle and said Bishop would be a “massive” inclusion for their first home game of the season.

“She’s our tallest player, she’s very skilled and has a lot of experience as well so to bring her back in the team will be awesome,” Madgen said.

The Lightning also have an injury concern with experienced import Crystal Langhorne, who missed the second game of their double-header last weekend with soreness.

Bishop played alongside Langhorne with the Seattle Storm in the WNBA and expected the 188cm power forward to play a key role if she takes the floor for Adelaide.

“She’s a savvy, undersized veteran. She’s played in the WNBA for over 10 years so she’s just really smart and good,” Bishop said.