Adelaide will treat Chelsea Randall’s ACL injury as a chance to repay the faith given by the Crows co-captain over her three years at the Club.

On Tuesday afternoon, Adelaide confirmed its co-captain had torn her ACL during the side’s first pre-season training on Monday night.

Speaking to media, Crows general manager of football administration Phil Harper said now is the time for the Club to “give a fair bit back (to Randall)".

“We’re so sad for Chels,” Harper said.

“Not only did she leave her home in Western Australia to come here and captain our Club, which she’s done such a good job.

“She also got an offer to go back to West Coast last year and be back with her family, but she chose to put our club and her teammates first.”

Despite the devastation, Harper said Randall still had her teammates front of mind.

“She’s asking ‘where to now, what can I do to help the team’, which has always been that case with her,” Harper said.

“She’s a team-first player, every one of our supporters who have watched her play know what a courageous person she is.

“She’s a very giving person who gives to the team all the time, so she’ll continue to do that and she’ll still play an important role for us next year.”

The incident occurred during a training drill as Randall attempted to change direction.

“It was in a training drill, she was running along with the ball and made a big change of direction to get around one of the other players and the knee just buckled underneath her,” Harper said.

“There was no contact from anyone else, it was just a classic ACL (tear).”

Given Randall’s injury marks the fifth ACL tear for the Crows side in the past 12 months, Harper said the Club would adjust its program to protect its players.

“For it to be our fifth in a year is just devastating and something we’ve got to look at,” Harper said.

“We’ve always done extra because history would say that women are more prone to (ACL) injuries than men.

“This year, we’ve done extra screening with the players to try and adjust our program again and see if we can make it better and the AFL are doing a lot of research into what we can do better.

“We’ll continue to strive because days like today, we don’t like it for our Club and we certainly don’t like it for our players and our beloved captain.”