Eight and a half months after sustaining an anterior cruciate ligament injury in the AFLW Grand Final, Chloe Scheer is doing “everything she can” to play in the 2020 AFLW season.
While it was devastating for the young star to suffer her second ACL injury in three years, her rehabilitation has put her in good stead heading into the season.
Scheer believes she is the fittest she has ever been.
“I’m doing really well and I’m doing everything I can,” Scheer said.
“Running, strength training and I’ve started a bit of agility now so hopefully we can ramp that up over the Christmas break.
“My key focus now is strength training, because my fitness is going really well.
“I feel like I am the fittest I’ve been, it’s a good benchmark for seasons to come I can keep progressing and see where it takes me.”
Her fitness has come from pushing herself so hard at the beginning of the rehabilitation.
At times, that made her knee sore, but she learned from it and now she knows when to give herself a rest.
“When I started running, I actually pushed myself too hard, so that is why my knee was ending up a little bit sore,” Scheer said.
“But thinking about it now, it’s actually set me up well with my fitness.
“I’ll keep going and as soon as I can run a bit harder and do a bit more work, I think I’ll be really fit.”
If all goes well, the 20-year-old won’t have to wait too much longer to begin fully training with the group.
And she is certainly striving to be available in 2020.
“The plan is, hopefully if everything goes smoothly, that sometime in January I will get back out on the track with the girls,” she said.
“That’s what I’m focusing on and I am going to push for that in the Christmas break, make sure I am doing everything right.
“I’ll just see how it pans out and how my knee handles everything, but I’m hopeful to get back out there in 2020.”
Scheer and her teammates will have a short Christmas break before returning to training early in the New Year, ahead of their first game on Saturday, February 8 against Brisbane.
