Abby Dow can still recall every painful detail. It was 9 April and she had broken her right leg in the early stages of England’s game against Wales at Kingsholm. Lying on a stretcher in the tunnel, with her family and friends around her, she thought her World Cup dream was over. “You always hear the horror stories of that person who was on form and then all of a sudden gets injured and misses out. We’ve been building for this event for five years and ‘It’s me’ was going through my head.”
Even after being transferred to London and placed in the care of a specialist surgeon she still feared the worst, with the World Cup due to kick off on 8 October. “I remember crying in my hospital bed as people broke the news to me that it was extremely unlikely. The surgery involved quite a big operation and the surgeon can’t say: ‘You’re going to make it.’”
