After suffering a freak knee injury in last season’s Challenge Cup Final, Faye Gaskin can finally see light at the end of the tunnel and hopes to return to action in April or May.
Against York at Leigh in May, the St Helens scrum-half created the opening try for her left winger Danielle Bush and jumped in the air in celebration. But she landed awkwardly and suffered a lateral tibial plateau fracture – a fracture of the kneecap – and missed the rest of the season.
“I won’t make the first few games of the season,” she said, “but it could be April time, and I might even be okay for the Challenge Cup Final.
“The structure of my knee is perfect but, being in a leg brace for a long time, I lost muscle in my quads and that has to be built up.
“People have asked if I wished I’d dropped the ball and not set up the try, but it was our first cup final, and it was Danni who scored it in her breakthrough year. I wouldn’t take it back.
“I walked off, but there should have been a stretcher. I went to A&E on crutches, and they said I should have been in a wheelchair. It’s quite a common injury from jumping apparently. A gymnast reached out to me on Twitter because it had happened to her.”
In Gaskin’s absence, Zoe Harris came into the team and went on to play a starring role in the Grand Final win over Leeds.
“Zoe is phenomenal and really stepped up,” said Gaskin.
“She is a great player and was unlucky not to be in the side at the start of the season. I was so proud of her, and she really smashed it in the Grand Final.”
Saints’ first game of the new season is a Challenge Cup tie at Barrow on March 13th.
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