Latest news with #SaraBlicavs
Sydney Morning Herald
07-05-2025
- Health
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Fearful of sneezing': How this Australian star came back from spinal fusion and a broken leg
WNBL champion Sara Blicavs knew something was wrong with her body. The 188-centimetre basketballer was losing mobility. Much smaller point guards were starting to push her out of the key, and off the court she was unable to pick up her three-year-old nephew. She ploughed on, desperate to attend the 2024 Paris Olympics with the Opals after getting a taste as an emergency substitute on the bronze medal-winning team in Tokyo. The source of her pain was bilateral spinal fractures – cracks coming from both directions that met in the middle of her vertebra. The fractures caused movement that eroded the spinal disc away and left bone scraping on bone. It meant she gave up her Paris dream and underwent a spinal fusion. After more than a year's rehabilitation, she returned for the Opals on Wednesday night against New Zealand in Adelaide in an 18-point win over the Tall Ferns. The 32-year-old said she had been so focused on the Olympics, she had blocked out the pain. Doctors later discovered she had also been playing basketball on a fracture in her tibia for months. 'You do end up kind of throwing your pain in the back of your head, and I was managing because I just wasn't thinking about it. You choose to completely switch off that part of your brain, and ignore any sign,' she said in an interview with the Victorian Institute of Sport. 'I had a broken leg as well as a broken back.' The injuries took a toll. She had pins and needles down her right leg for half an hour after one game, and in a separate incident was bedridden for days after her back seized when trying to get up off the ground while sunbathing. But it was only when she decided to have surgery that she realised the extent of her injury.
Sydney Morning Herald
07-05-2025
- Health
- Sydney Morning Herald
Blicavs and the bionic back: How this Australian star came back from a spinal fusion
WNBL champion Sara Blicavs knew something was wrong with her body. The 188-centimetre basketballer was losing mobility. Much smaller point guards were starting to push her out of the key, and off the court she was unable to pick up her three-year-old nephew. She ploughed on, desperate to attend the 2024 Paris Olympics with the Opals after getting a taste as an emergency substitute on the bronze medal-winning team in Tokyo. The source of her pain was bilateral spinal fractures – cracks coming from both directions that met in the middle of her vertebra. The fractures caused movement that eroded the spinal disc away and left bone scraping on bone. It meant she gave up her Paris dream and underwent a spinal fusion. After more than a year's rehabilitation, she returns for the Opals on Wednesday night against New Zealand in Adelaide. The 32-year-old said she had been so focused on the Olympics, she had blocked out the pain. Doctors later discovered she had also been playing basketball on a fracture in her tibia for months. 'You do end up kind of throwing your pain in the back of your head, and I was managing because I just wasn't thinking about it. You choose to completely switch off that part of your brain, and ignore any sign,' she said in an interview with the Victorian Institute of Sport. 'I had a broken leg as well as a broken back.' The injuries took a toll. She had pins and needles down her right leg for half an hour after one game, and in a separate incident was bedridden for days after her back seized when trying to get up off the ground while sunbathing. 'All the pain just flushed back in,' she said. 'I couldn't stand up ... I was fearful of sneezing at that point. I couldn't bend forward to pick a basketball up.'
The Age
07-05-2025
- Health
- The Age
Blicavs and the bionic back: How this Australian star came back from a spinal fusion
WNBL champion Sara Blicavs knew something was wrong with her body. The 188-centimetre basketballer was losing mobility. Much smaller point guards were starting to push her out of the key, and off the court she was unable to pick up her three-year-old nephew. She ploughed on, desperate to attend the 2024 Paris Olympics with the Opals after getting a taste as an emergency substitute on the bronze medal-winning team in Tokyo. The source of her pain was bilateral spinal fractures – cracks coming from both directions that met in the middle of her vertebra. The fractures caused movement that eroded the spinal disc away and left bone scraping on bone. It meant she gave up her Paris dream and underwent a spinal fusion. After more than a year's rehabilitation, she returns for the Opals on Wednesday night against New Zealand in Adelaide. The 32-year-old said she had been so focused on the Olympics, she had blocked out the pain. Doctors later discovered she had also been playing basketball on a fracture in her tibia for months. 'You do end up kind of throwing your pain in the back of your head, and I was managing because I just wasn't thinking about it. You choose to completely switch off that part of your brain, and ignore any sign,' she said in an interview with the Victorian Institute of Sport. 'I had a broken leg as well as a broken back.' The injuries took a toll. She had pins and needles down her right leg for half an hour after one game, and in a separate incident was bedridden for days after her back seized when trying to get up off the ground while sunbathing. 'All the pain just flushed back in,' she said. 'I couldn't stand up ... I was fearful of sneezing at that point. I couldn't bend forward to pick a basketball up.'
