Adelaide AFL forward McKenzie Dowrick remembers exactly what went through her head when she went down with an injury during the inaugural AFLW Showdown.

“I actually thought the Port player’s knee went into my quad and I thought it was just a corked thigh,” Dowrick said.

“There’s footage of me trying to get up and I fell over.

“But I think the doctor and physio must’ve gone back and watched the footage and her knee was nowhere near my leg.

“That’s the best way I can describe it, like someone’s knee went into my quad, that’s how it felt, but obviously it was a very different outcome.”

The injury, which she sustained as she jumped up to take a mark in the third quarter, was however, much worse than just a corked thigh.

“That’s the best way I can describe it, like someone’s knee went into my quad.

Scans confirmed the following day that the 22-year-old had ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).

Speaking to AFC Media, Dowrick said receiving the news was tough, especially given there were still four games remaining in the Crows’ Season Seven campaign.

“I was with my sister Abbie when I got told the results and I was a bit sad,” Dowrick 

“I was just more annoyed because I felt that I was starting to play well and I was playing more games than I had the previous season.

“I had luckily enough not been injured before, but my first injury was obviously a bad one.”

Now, four months post-injury Dowrick has ticked off a milestone, after she was given the green light to start running again.

The skilful left-footer said she was working hard with the Club doctor and strength and conditioning team to slowly increase her training loads.

“I was doing seated exercise first post-operation, on the skier, doing boxing seated and all those sorts of things for quite a while,” Dowrick said.

“I was then finally able to start standing exercising and it progressed from, which meant I was able to do everything but run.

“In December my gym program got a bit more intense with lifting, we set some targets that I needed to hit before I went back to running and fortunately enough I hit them.

“When I was allowed to run, Noffy (Ebony Marinoff) ran with me for about 10 minutes, so it was a lot of fun.”

Dowrick, who lined up in 12 AFLW games for Brisbane and West Coast before joining the Crows prior to Season Six starting, said she would not have been able to get through the past few months without the support of her teammates.

She said her short term goal was to start skill-based training with some of her teammates soon.

“All the girls have also helped me a lot through it, which has been great,” Dowrick said.

“I just want to see how far I can progress with my running and hopefully then training with the girls.

“I’d like to get out there to start working on my touch again and hopefully join in on some optional skill sessions.”