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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Sport
Guardian sport

‘I feel like a different person’: AFLW star opens up on trauma from lightning strike

Jessica Wuetschner takes a moment to reflect after Brisbane’s victory over Adelaide in the 2021 AFLW Grand Final.
Jessica Wuetschner takes a moment to reflect after Brisbane’s victory over Adelaide in the 2021 AFLW Grand Final. Photograph: Michael Willson/AFL Photos/Getty Images

AFLW star Jessica Wuetschner has revealed the terrifying physical and mental toll of the 2020 lightning strike that “ruined my life” and almost derailed her football career.

It was two weeks out from the start of the 2020 AFLW season when Wuetschner, then 27 and playing for the Brisbane Lions while working as a stevedore, was struck by lightning as the crane she was driving unloaded a ship on the docks in Queensland.

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