‘I had to be so careful’ — Ferns stalwart returns from cancer
Rebekah Stott will rejoin the national women’s football team this week, a year after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, writes Andrew Voerman.
AS she began chemotherapy last March, after being diagnosed with stage three Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of blood cancer, Rebekah Stott was driven, in part, by the thought of returning to the Football Ferns.
It’s been seven months since her aggressive treatment ended with her cancer in complete remission and just over two months since she returned to professional football, with Melbourne City in A-League Women.
On Tuesday, the 28-year-old was named in the 23-strong squad selected by Jitka Klimkova´ for the SheBelieves
Cup, where the Ferns will play Iceland, the United States, and the Czech Republic, starting on Friday [NZ time].
Stott will head to the US for that tournament after playing for City this afternoon, and she’s determined to put her best foot forward, with the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup, to be played in Australia and New Zealand, less than 18 months away.
The last time she was with the Ferns was in March 2020, at the Algarve Cup in Portugal, just before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The team has assembled three times since – for the Tokyo Olympics last July, and in Canada and South Korea last October and November – and Stott can’t wait to see her teammates for the first time in almost two years,
Asked what she had missed the most while away, she said: ‘‘I think just the girls. It’s such a good team environment, and everyone gets along so well.
‘‘I also think just being on tour and going to see all the different places in the world. You don’t get that with club football, so I’m just stoked.’’
The last time Stott flew internationally was when she returned from England to Australia following her diagnosis last February, leaving the English Super League club she’d only joined a few months prior, Brighton & Hove Albion.
She went public with her diagnosis on social media at the start of March and has detailed her journey since then on her website beat it. by Stotty, giving remarkable insight into her life during an incredibly challenging time.
Stott’s willingness to share what she has been going through, in posts with titles like the week that *finally* broke me, was prompted by the hope it could help others in similar situations, and it has been reciprocated with an outpouring of support.
She said ‘‘seeing how much support I have around me – my family, my friends, the whole football world,’’ was what had stood out to her over the past year.
‘‘It’s been amazing to see everyone sending messages and everyone wishing me luck and success. That was one of the coolest things to see, for sure.’’
Stott’s first return to football actually came a few days before the scan results that said she was in complete remission – a fiveminute run for Melbourne club side Bulleen Lions, a team coached by one of her good friends.
At the time, she said that small taste had made her realise how much she had missed playing.
‘‘I was quite shocked at how good it made me feel and how happy I was just to get back on the field. Now I’m itching to get back on for longer.’’
The process of slowly, but surely regaining her fitness began last July, and by the time the start of the A-League Women season arrived in the first week of December, she was ready for a starting role.
‘‘At the very start, it was so hard because my body was so
different,’’ Stott said. ‘‘To go from hardly being able to walk around the block to starting training, it would take me a good three days to recover from a simple session.’’
‘‘I had to take it slow in terms of my heart rate, so it was a slow process. I would do gym sessions and just try and build strength, but still I had to be so careful.
‘‘I’d keep getting little niggles, like one week it would be my calf
muscles, then the next week it would be my quads, so it was just letting my body adjust and become right without pushing it too much. When I could actually complete a full week of training, it was quite a big success. It’s been slow. It’s been hard, but I’ve had good support around me, and it’s been incredible to go from 60 minutes up to 90 minutes, most games. It’s been hard, but it’s been rewarding.’’
Stott played a full match for the first time on January 9, against the Wellington Phoenix, then repeated that feat in City’s next three outings. She said being able to go the distance had been a huge milestone.’’
Stott usually lined up at centreback on her way to earning 81 Ferns’ caps. For City this summer, she’s played in midfield – both at the base of it, and further forward – but she still feels most comfortable at centre back, and that is where she hopes to play when she gets the chance to earn cap No 82.