‘Maybe I wasn’t meant to be a professional but overcoming my accident has made me stronger’
YOU don’t have to be in Lauren Hancock’s company for long to realise you are dealing with bubbly effervescent character with a real lust for life.
We meet at the Landore training ground as she and manager Ian Owen prepare for an evening training session with the rest of the Swansea City Ladies squad.
The weather is absolutely filthy, but the pair are in buoyant mood as they banter back and forth in the reception area.
“We’ve known each other for 16 years,” says Hancock. “It feels like 46,” retorts Owen quick as a flash and to much mirth from his full-back.
Perhaps it is not surprising that Hancock is in such a chipper mood because it was not so long ago that the notion of playing football again, or even leading a regular life, was far from certain.
By November of 2015 the midfielder or defender was seeking to achieve her dream of being a professional playing for Reading, she had also been capped by her country.
Then, on the 23rd of that month, in weather not dissimilar to that raging outside as we speak, came an event that turned her life upside down.
Hancock had been on her way to meet a friend in Swansea to go to a gig, but she would not make it.
Incredibly, when you consider the injuries Hancock sustained, she was initially able to walk away from the accident before the adrenaline that had shielded her from the pain subsided.
“It was November 23, 2015, so it has been nearly three years,” she says.
“I was going to meet a friend, I was not far from Gorseinon and coming across a roundabout on Carmarthen Road.
“I put my foot on the brake pedal but the car aquaplaned onto the roundabout. My foot got knocked onto the accelerator and I went headfirst into a tree.
“I don’t know if I blacked out, but I came to and all I could smell was smoke. It turned out it was the airbag but I did not know that and felt I just had to get out of the car.
“I took off my belt and got out the car, I walked about 10 yards and just collapsed in pain.
“A lovely young girl stopped and came to check on me, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. My back hurt but the pain was probably worse when I hurt my knee ligaments playing football.
“My sister was the first one there and then my uncle and the ambulance arrived, I didn’t want to tell my parents.
“But the doctors and nurses at Morriston Hospital were brilliant with me when I got there. They sent me for a full body CT scan which made me feel a bit nervous and I was put on strong medication that left me numb.”
When the diagnosis came it was a devastating blow and not just from a sporting point of view, with Hancock combining her playing duties with holding down a regular job.
But it is telling that Hancock talks of the fear of not being able to play football again as one of her first thoughts in the aftermath of her operations.
“After the scan one of the doctors came in and said, ‘I am sorry to tell you but you have broken your back’ and then he walked out,” she says.
“We were all a bit shocked and I could tell my parents were trying to stay calm and be strong for me.
“I was put on a ward where I met some crazy old ladies who had a great laugh with me. There was a women there called Dot who was in her 90s. She was next to me and we watched Strictly Come Dancing together.
“She was lovely and I went back to visit here after I got out of hospital.
“Within 48 hours I had my operation. I had been lying flat on my back. I had an unstable Thoracic break, the T11 and T12 vertebrae so I could not move.
“The choice was have the operation or lie there like that for three months. So I have two rods and four screws in my back and I will have them for life.
“But in the end I was only in hospital for a week, from Monday to Monday.
“But I was worried. Can I play football again? Do I want to play again? There were nights those questions ran around my head. The doctors reassured me I would be able to kick a ball again, but it was a lot to take in.
“It was scary, you don’t know what to think or do.”
The rehabilitation process would prove to be a lengthy one, and Hancock is the first to admit it was a very challenging time as she gradually stepped up her recovery as the months went past. And she will always be grateful to parents Tracy and Alan, and all her family and friends for trying to keep her spirits high through such a difficult period of her life and career.
“I was off work for three months, I could not lift anything heavy for six months, it was about readjusting my posture and I did a lot of physio and hydrotherapy.
“But it was hard and being away from friends, they cannot all drop things for me, but some came to sit with me for hours on end and talk to me and keep me company even on their evenings when they had finished work.
“There were good days and bad days. I had been pushing at Reading, so leaving that was hard to take. I felt I had to give myself 18 months, not rush and try and enjoy life a little.
“Reading released me, but that’s just football I don’t hold it against them they had a season to prepare for. But those first nine months were so hard.”
Hancock, who hails from Waunarlwydd and attended Bishop Gore School, admits she had been pretty much unaware of football until going along to watch here elder sister Emily playing on the site of the old Morfa Stadium when she was just eight years old.
Emily would herself represent Swansea and Wales, also undertaking a scholarship in America, and also worked in the Swans’ female academy.
It did not take long for Lauren to make a mark of her own. Having started with her hometown club shemade her debut as a 16-year-old in the Champions League of all competitions.
She also spent time at Cardiff City as she looked to boost her international chances, and then came the move to Reading following advice from current Wales boss Jayne Lud-
low. “It all started with my sister, who is three years older than me,” says Hancock smiling at the memory.
“She is my idol, although I would never tell her that.
“She was playing where the Liberty is now, I was just bored kicking the ball around on the sideline and it was probably the last thing I wanted to do on a Sunday.
“But I enjoyed having the ball at my feet and decided I wanted to follow Emily and play. So I found a local team and played for Landore and Llangyfelach.
“There were not many of us playing, but I got into the Swansea Centre of Excellence at the age of 10 – my sister was already there – and began to take it more seriously.
“Until then I had not really been a football fan. My father obviously is and I would watch games with him, but I remember him taking me to The Vetch for the first time and being on the North Bank and I loved it, although I’m not sure my mother was too happy about it.
“He probably thought he would have two daughters who would be into ballet, so he was quite pleased when we showed interest in football!
“I made my debut at 16 in the Champions League and the boys in work still ask me about that, like they don’t believe it.
“I went to Cardiff because it gave me the best chance of being in the Wales Under-19s squad for the European finals as a left-back.
“I was playing as a holding midfielder for Swansea and Wales did not really want me in that position, so there were no hard feelings.
“I had two years there, came back to Swansea and then had that chance to go to Reading. Jayne Ludlow thought it was a good opportunity for me to progess.
“I played against some big teams and I was thoroughly enjoying it, but then came the accident. My plan was to try and go professional but that realistically finished that chapter.”
So you can imagine the uncertainty Hancock felt about returning to the game after such a long lay-off.
She had the chance to keep her hand in with some coaching after encouragement from her sister and Swans manager Owen, and completed her Uefa ‘C’ Licence along the way.
But it was a conversation with grandfather Peter that played a big part in convincing Lauren that it was time to put on her boots again and get back out there herself.
With Swansea and Owen offering her the chance to make her return in the Welsh Women’s Premier League, Hancock made her comeback as a substitute in a victory over Caernarfon just under two years after her accident in November 2017.
She would end the season with silverware as the Swans beat Cardiff City to win the FAW Women’s Cup.
“The guys here were supportive and they kept saying they would love to have me back if I wanted to play,” she said.
“I think the moment I knew I wanted to go back was when my grandfather – we were just chatting – said to me ‘I think it’s time you went back to playing because I would like to come and watch you again.
“He was a big inspiration in all our lives, he died shortly after that but he was nagging me and telling me and, as much as I went back for myself, it was also for him too.
“So I went back to training, I had a personal trainer called Carys Norman who helped me do extra work. I had put some weight on and I wanted to slim down and slowly the pace of it started to come back to me.
“It has taken a good year to get back to how I want to be, it’s probably only this pre-season where I feel I have that speed but I want to improve again.
“But to get back out there was brilliant, I came on after 60 minutes against Caernarfon and it was just ‘Wow.’
“I was back out there walking onto the pitch and wearing the badge. I was blowing after it, but it was nice.
“I probably won’t go anywhere else now, I want to finish here at a good competitive level.”
Hancock has to fit in her football around the rest of her life. She and her team-mates may well play for a club that has been in the Premier League, but this is a squad of amateur athletes.
She actually works for Mcdonald’s, going from work to training on Wednesdays and Fridays. She reveals that to carry out this interview she kindly swapped shifts so she could finish early and get to Landore as soon as possible.
It can be demanding to juggle the two demands, but it is something she is more than happy to do given she knows the pleasure she gets from playing football is something that could so easily have been lost to her.
“Even at Reading I was still commuting. I worked five days a week and went up and back there three times a week to train and play,” she said.
“Work are good with me, they understand and so do the club.
“It can be tiring but you love the game and when you love the game you do anything you can to make sure you are on the pitch playing or out here training.
“I think the accident has changed me and my view a little. Everyone always says things happen for a reason. Maybe I wasn’t meant to be a professional but overcoming it all has made me stronger.
“I’ve calmed down, I was a fiery young kid, but I have matured and you realise how you have to enjoy life because it is short.”
With that it’s time for training and Hancock makes her way down the corridor to join Owen and her colleagues before training gets under way. As the players head out into the driving wind and lashing rain, her laughter is still audible and it comes to mind that it is a moment which perfectly encapsulates Hancock’s character.
She’s been through the storm, but she’s still smiling.