Albany’s Georgia Crosby still driven to play high-level sport as she recovers from second ACL operation

State rugby representative Georgia Crosby is determined to get back to the playing field despite having a second operation to repair a damaged anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee. The talented teenager’s ambitions to play rugby at the elite level were cut down in 2019 when as a 17-year-old she suffered the dreaded ACL injury while playing social touch rugby on school holidays. Now more than two years on from that initial operation, Crosby is again in recovery mode after having ACL revision surgery on April 20 this year. Crosby continued to feel pain when returning to sport more than 20 months after her first operation and after a number of MRI scans it was revealed she needed more surgery to avoid a second ACL tear. “Typical ACL injuries are normally around 12 months so it took me a fair bit longer for me to get going,” she said. “I just had ongoing pain while I was playing and it was still a bit unstable so I kept having MRIs and kept speaking to my physio. “After one of the MRIs they had a look at it and said the ACL was a bit lax and it wasn’t looking as healthy as it should of considering my age and how long ago I had the reconstruction. “They decided that I’d have to have ACL revision surgery . ... It didn’t rupture or tear but because of how lax it was, it was going down the path of it would tear eventually.” Despite the major setback, Crosby has a positive outlook on her recovery and still hopes to play elite sport. “I’m hoping to get back to sport within 12 months,” Crosby said. “My dream is to still play at the high level but I also have to be real with myself in a sense that it is very likely that I could tear it again and if I do tear the same knee again it’s kind of game over for me. “Initially I was kind of on the pathway that I wanted (sport) to be my career and after having my first ACL injury had to rethink a few things and having two ACL reconstructions at the age of 19 is not exactly in my favour. “The main focus is on my recovery and I think I’d like to play women’s AFL as in at the higher level as it’s a bit kinder on the body compared to rugby.” Crosby said she had experienced plenty of highs and lows with her recovery but was resolute in doing everything possible to get back to full health. “It’s obviously heartbreaking,” she said. “My first one I got the call early in the morning, I cried for days; it broke my heart because I was so excited for the pathway that I was on and for it to all stop then was pretty hard to take in. “Now that I’ve had the second reconstruction the surgeon is pretty happy with the work he has done and I’ve been through it once before so I know what to do and what not to do in terms of recovery.”