After almost two years out with a serious knee injury, when there were times she wondered if she’d ever play again, York Valkyrie star Tara Jane Stanley is finally ready to return to action. 

“IT’S something that I didn’t know if I’d do again.”

That was the stark reality facing York Valkyrie star Tara Jane Stanley as she looks ahead to finally making her playing comeback after almost two years on the sidelines with a knee injury.

Having initially injured her knee in April 2024, full-back Stanley appeared to make a successful return that summer before disaster struck again just weeks before the end of the season, when she limped off with what was later confirmed to be an ACL injury.

That injury kept the 32-year-old out of the whole of last season and the first half of this campaign, but she is finally expected to pull on the shirt and lace up her boots once again once the second half of York’s season gets underway against Leeds Rhinos on Saturday, 8th August.

And given one specific conversation she held with her consultant, doing just that will prove a major achievement, so it’s no wonder her excitement at playing again radiated out of her every pore.

“After my injury, I had some further setbacks and, during the video call with the consultant before my second operation, the message was, ‘never mind the rugby, can we get you to walk again?’,” Stanley told Rugby League World.

“Earlier in the season I was at a point where I could have gone out, I could have run about and I could have played the game, but given how many people have gone on to re-injure themselves after an ACL, Leon (Pryce – head coach), the strength and conditioning team and the medical staff really wanted to make sure that I had a strong base and a strong foundation so that when I do get back playing I can just focus on the game and I don’t have to worry about the knee. Thankfully, we have all the facilities at York to do all the necessary tests to make sure I have that.

“So there’s no pressure on me to get back, other than the pressure I’ve put on myself. Leon has had to pull the reins on me a lot, and at times he’s had to say, ‘No, Tara, stop doing that, you can’t do that.’

“So being here now, and ready to go again, is just really, really exciting.”

When Stanley does make her big return, it’ll not only end the longest wait of her career to play again, but it will also bring down the curtain on a period that has been as mentally tough as it has been physically.

“I have a lot of people that I follow on social media that have gone through similar experiences, and right at the start of my journey, they spoke about the mental battle ahead, and I always thought that would never affect me,” added Stanley.

“I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s just an injury, I’ll just get on with it’, but genuinely this has been the hardest time of my life, and I am very thankful that I have such a strong support network around me, not just in rugby, but at home as well.

“People have asked me how I’ve coped with it, but ‘cope’ isn’t really a word that I’ve ever used because I was brought into the coaching staff last year, so I have always still been around the game and in among the girls.

“I know all players talk about their teams being like their family, but we genuinely are a family at York.

“Like all families, it’s not always perfect, but most of the time it’s great, and we can be really honest with each other. We’ve always talked about building each other’s bank accounts up.

“We’ve deposited so much into each other that when we have to have those tough conversations, we can have them. People have had to have tough conversations with me and told me that I can’t do certain things because I’ve needed to think about my knee.

“They’ve kept me in check, and I genuinely can’t thank Clint (Goodchild – owner) and everyone else at the club enough for all their support through all of this.”

If there is one positive to come out of this extended injury spell, it’s that it has given Stanley a clear indication of where her future might lie once her playing days are over.

“Getting involved in the coaching side of things was definitely eye-opening,” added the 21-capped England international.

“It’s also given me a new sense of appreciation of what coaches do. Obviously you see some of that as a player, but until you get involved in that side of it yourself, you genuinely don’t know how much they do, or see all the background work that they do.

“I’d like to think that I have been a bit of a bridge between the coaching staff and the players because I saw things through a different lens.

“I really enjoyed it, but that experience has definitely solidified the route that I want to take after my playing career finishes – that is coaching, but maybe not as a head coach – that’s just way too many difficult decisions.”

While that coaching and rehab journey started under former coach Lindsay Anfield, it will come to an end under former England and Great Britain international Leon Pryce.

The four-time Super League Grand Final winner joined the club over the winter following Anfield’s departure, and has so far overseen something of a rebuild at the Valkyrie.

For Stanley, the thought of not playing under Anfield is something new, given the pair previously worked together at Castleford Tigers before the move to the Minster city. But she is so far enjoying life with the former Bradford Bulls, St Helens, Catalans Dragons and Hull FC star.

“It’s very different without Lindsay, and I’m not going to say that I wasn’t nervous going into this season,” admitted Stanley, who still works alongside Anfield as a PE teacher at De Lacy Academy in Knottingley.

“Lindsay coached me for many years, brought me over to Yorkshire and away from my family, so she is genuinely like my second mum.

“But I have been flabbergasted by how Leon has come in – he’s so supportive, so knowledgeable, and has just brought a different angle to the club.

“I was a bit worried at first that it was going to be another transitional year for us and that’s not what we wanted, but when we first sat down with Leon, we asked him what his goal was. He said, ‘to win’, and we just knew this was going to be a great journey, and it’s just got better each week.

“We’re working towards our strengths, and that is something that has been really exciting to see from the sidelines so far.

“Leon and his assistant Mitch are challenging a lot of the girls to bring out the best in them and are doing that in a really positive way, and then when the girls are doing it, it’s just so good to see.

“He set his stall out straight away, in terms of his expectations and, as well as us being nervous, I think he was too. But I look back now I think, ‘why was I even worried?’

“He’s so knowledgeable, and he can just say the smallest of things about an aspect of your game, and you do it, and you’re left thinking, ‘why have I never done it like that before?’

“He’s not trying to change us as players, or as people; he’s just trying to find that greatness in us.”

So while there have been changes in personnel, which have also seen the likes of Megan Pakulis, Sade Rihari and Lisa Parker all return after spells away from the club, as well as international players Monique Donovan and Petra Woods sign on at the North Yorkshire club, one thing hasn’t changed – the desire to win.

And while trophies might not come their way this year, as they are heading into the Super Fours in fourth place and six points behind leaders and reigning champions Wigan Warriors, Stanley knows her side will give their all to the cause.

Having already played each Super League side once in the first phase of the season, York will now face a run of fixtures against fellow top-four sides Wigan, Leeds Rhinos and St Helens – playing them home and away – in the race for the Grand Final.

All competition points accrued in the first stage of the season will be carried forward, with the team finishing top after the second phase of the season not only taking the League Leaders’ Shield, but also securing a place in the Grand Final, with the teams in second and third then facing a one-off play-off for the right to face them.

“It has always been, and will always be, that the Valkyrie want to win everything,” concluded Stanley.

“We want to do Leon proud, and we want all the trophies – and we’ll work our butts off until we get them all.”

First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 523 (August 2026)