Football Fern earns a return through faith and hard work
Emma Rolston overcomes injury and illness to gain a recall despite not being on the coach’s radar when the squad went into camp. By Andrew Voerman.
Emma Rolston didn’t know what was wrong with her.
She still doesn’t, in fact. But whatever it was, she’s over it, feeling as good about her football as she has in quite some time, and on her way to the Tokyo Olympics with the Football Ferns.
The 24-year-old made her debut for the national women’s team in 2018, during the ill-fated tenure of former coach Andreas Heraf, then was part of current coach Tom Sermanni’s first squad, for the Oceania Nations Cup at the end of that year.
She scored six goals in that tournament, including a hat-trick against New Caledonia, as the Ferns swept the rest of the Pacific aside to qualify for the 2019 Fifa Women’s World Cup and the Olympics, which were originally scheduled to take place last year.
But since then, she hasn’t featured – though she hasn’t had the chance to for 15 months, as the Ferns have been inactive since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic last March, which ultimately forced the postponement of the Olympics.
First it was shin splints that kept her out, when she was at MSV Duisburg in the Frauen Bundesliga in Germany at the start of 2019. Then it was an ankle injury, which ended any hopes she had of making it to the World Cup.
By the end of 2019, she was back in Wellington, where her club career began with Waterside Karori, and playing for Capital in New Zealand’s National Women’s League, where she ultimately topped the Golden Boot chart.
But when the national league rolled around again at the end of last year, where she was planning on playing for the Northern Lights in Auckland, she wasn’t in a good way.
She made one appearance, in the first round of the season, but that was it, as she struggled to deal with an illness which resulted in a wide range of symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, palpitations, shortness of breath, and a severe loss of appetite, but eluded any formal diagnosis.
‘‘I was ill for about eight months where I was unable to do anything,’’ Rolston said following the squad announcement.
‘‘I was seeing specialists to get to the bottom of it. Unfortunately we didn’t get to the bottom of it, but I’m feeling better now, and I’m able to play.’’
Sermanni said Rolston had forced her way into his thinking during the camp he had held in Auckland earlier this month.
‘‘Rollo’s had some real challenges over the last couple of years with her health and injuries, and she’s barely played any games.
‘‘Before the camp, she wasn’t even on the radar. Coming into the camp, she was given an opportunity to get on the radar, but I really didn’t have any major hopes for her, if I’m being honest, yet she’s come in, and she’s been
outstanding – she’s in good condition and really focused.
‘‘None of us have ever questioned her football ability, but some players are fortunate and some players are unfortunate, particularly when it comes to injuries, and she’s had a run of misfortune.
‘‘For her to get over that and come through what she’s come
through, she really deserves to be selected.’’
For Rolston to be in Auckland and able to attend the camp in the first place took another bit of misfortune, albeit one that turned into good fortune. She has signed to play in Norway’s Topserien with Arna-Bjørnar and would have been there had the process of getting her visa not been delayed, a setback which ultimately worked to her advantage.
Rolston said she went into the camp feeling she had plenty to prove, and while she was lost for words when asked to describe what it meant to have come out of it an Olympian, her delight was clear to see.
She had always believed in herself and felt she had done the work, and had a point to make.
Now she’s made the squad, Rolston will be hoping for a chance to show what she has to offer a Ferns team that is in desperate need of some creativity, when their Olympic campaign begins on July 21 against their trans-Tasman rivals, the Matildas.
The world champion United States and Sweden are the other teams they are up against in group G at the 12-team tournament, where earning a single point would exceed their expectations.