Fifa Women’s World Cup: Football Ferns co-captain Ria Percival opens up on the injury that almost ended her career

For a few weeks last year, Ria Percival needed a skateboard as part of her meal routine at home.

The Football Ferns co-captain had suffered the worst injury of her career, wrenching her knee so badly in a match that her London-based surgeon said he had never seen anything like it.

After an extensive operation, Percival faced months of recovery.

Initially, she was confined to her London flat, on crutches, unable to put any weight on her left leg, with the most basic of daily tasks an ordeal.

Washing was a mission – “I had to sit in the bottom of my shower with my legs out” – as was feeding herself. That’s when she came up with the idea of using an old skateboard as a trolley.

“I had lino floors, so I would use it to skateboard coffee or food or ice if I needed it from my kitchen area to the lounge,” Percival tells the Herald. “I’d have a bit of string or I’d just push it along with my crutch and it would slide along the floor.”

The 33-year-old can laugh about it now but the episode is a small insight into a battle she thought she might not win.

Football Ferns co-captains Ria Percival, left, and Ali Riley. Photo / Photosport

Percival’s world collapsed in April last year, on a Zoom call with top knee surgeon Sam Church, along with a club physiotherapist from Tottenham Hotspur.

She knew the news would be bad – she had ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament and her meniscus in a match against Australia – but didn’t realise just how bad, as Church outlined the scan results.

“I had a full rupture of both,” said Percival. “So he wasn’t sure what he was going to do. It was the worst meniscus tear he had seen and he wasn’t sure how I’d managed to do it.”

Church said he would try to “jigsaw” it back together. If that didn’t work and didn’t hold or react like it should, the only other option was a meniscus transplant three months after the operation.

He was frank with the prognosis.

“He said to me – I’m not sure if you’ll play football again,” says Percival. “That was the hardest part. It’s bad enough doing that injury … but then hearing that news. It’s your job, what you do every day. When that might get taken away from you – it was a panic moment for me.

“As soon as he said that I forgot everything else, just because of the shock of it. That was when it hit me, how serious it was.”

Ria Percival controls the ball. Jenny Chuang / www.photosport.nz

During her long career, encompassing more than 15 years in senior football, Percival had avoided serious injuries.

That all changed on April 8 last year, in a match against Australia in Townsville.

As Percival pursued an opponent near halfway, she pivoted – then collapsed in agony.

“It happened so quick,” says Percival. “I just remember planting my foot and then hearing a pop – it sounded like a gunshot just went off in my knee. I remember the pain straight away. It’s something you can’t explain or describe but I knew it was something big.”

Still full of adrenaline, Percival watched the rest of the match from the bench.

“I remember sitting [there] and then the pain started to set in,” says Percival. “That night it just kept getting worse. I don’t think I slept at all.”

A week or so later, Percival was in a daze, trying desperately to decipher the information from Church.

“The meniscus had torn and flipped back on itself,” says Percival. “He had to figure out a way to try and flip it back to where it should be and make sure that all the blood flow and everything would go back through. If it didn’t take to that, I’d need a transplant.”

The operation was done, before an anxious wait to see if everything fused. It did, but it was an onerous rehabilitation, with three months of non-weight bearing.

“It didn’t help I lived in a flat up two flights of stairs, with no lift,” says Percival.

Her recovery was twice as long as a typical ACL, due to the meniscus damage.

“Usually you can start some running within three months but I couldn’t until six months post,” says Percival. “That was another setback, to wait for my meniscus to heal. You are in the gym every day from first thing and you’re the last to leave.”

There were nervous moments, especially when Percival had to replicate the same movement in training.

But she got through, and almost a year to the day, was back on the field for Spurs, playing four games to finish the season. Apart from match fitness and sharpness, there are no lingering effects, which is a massive boost for the Ferns.

“She is such a big player for this team, she rolls her sleeves up and works and won’t stop working for the whole game,” says defender Claudia Bunge. “She leads by example. It’s all well and good to say we need to do this better or do that but she just does it.”

Football Ferns co-captain Ria Percival. Photo / Photosport

Percival isn’t a big talker, but her words carry weight.

“She is a woman of few words,” agrees Bunge. “But she gives us young ones stick sometimes and she is great to have, on and off the field.”

Percival made her Ferns debut in November 2006 and has clocked up 163 appearances since then, along with 16 years at clubs in the United States, Canada, Germany, Switzerland and England.

But tomorrow’s tournament opener could top all that, especially if the Ferns can rise to the occasion against the world No 12 Norway.

“We all know what’s coming,” says Percival. “It’s something you will never forget.”

As well as friends, family and her teammates, her surgeon Church will also be prominent in her thoughts as she runs out at Eden Park.

“I went to see him for a check-up and he said I still dream about that meniscus of yours,” says Percival. “He deserves so much credit. Without him I probably wouldn’t be playing – or not back to this level. To this day, he still can’t believe it how well I’m doing.”

Michael Burgess has been a sports journalist since 2005, winning several national awards and covering Olympics, Fifa World Cups and America’s Cup campaigns. A football aficionado, Burgess will never forget the noise that greeted Rory Fallon’s goal against Bahrain in Wellington in 2009.