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Leicester Tigers' Evie Wills: A year on from ACL injury
By Gary Heatly
Thursday, August 8 marks exactly a year since Leicester Tigers and Scotland playmaker Evie Wills suffered a serious knee injury – now she is nearly back to full fitness, is feeling fresh with a positive mindset and cannot wait for the 2024/25 season to get underway.
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Wills, now 23, joined Leicester ahead of their first foray into the PWR last summer alongside a batch of fellow Scots including Francesca McGhie, Eva Donaldson and Leah Bartlett and was loving pre-season at Tigers.
Then disaster struck for the stand-off/centre and qualified nurse on August 8 when her knee gave way during a drill when there was nobody else within five metres of her.
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All sorts of things flashed through her mind: she had just moved to a new country and a new club and was eager to make an impression, she was set to join up with Scotland soon after that ahead of WXV 2 selection while Scottish Rugby’s full-time contracts, which she had one of, were set to be looked at again soon.
“There is no good time to do your ACL and, I will be honest with you, on that day and when I found out about the severity of the injury a wee while later it was just gutting,” Wills said.
“I have always been a positive person, but that period of time really did test my resolve, especially being away from home at the start of what was meant to be a new adventure.
“I was decelerating in a non-contact training session and I went to change direction and my knee just totally buckled.
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“It was hard because when you are injured in contact then you really have no control over it, but with non-contact injuries, you immediately think ‘Did I need to make that movement?’, but of course that is silly and I was probably in a bit of shock and it was really just unlucky.
“Leicester’s medical team helped with the initial assessments and then I headed back up to Scotland because I was meant to be there for a pre-WXV 2 camp anyway.
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“I was hoping that maybe it was just an MCL grade two tear and that I’d be able to get back in time to go to South Africa for that event in the October.
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“That turned out to be wishful thinking and once the swelling had gone down on the knee I was reviewed by the Scotland medical staff and I was in for an MRI scan pretty quickly after that.
“Through that we found out that it was a full ACL rupture along with a meniscus tear and, a few weeks later, I was having surgery and getting my head around the long rehab period.
“Lots was going on in my head, but I tried just to focus on getting the rehab right and not thinking about things that I could not control. Seeing the Scotland girls win WXV 2 from afar was a boost and they were great at keeping me involved in the WhatsApp chats and such like.”
Wills grew up in Stirling and went to nearby Dollar Academy for senior school while she came through the rugby ranks at Stirling County from the Minis right up to the under-18s and they had quite a bit of success along the way.
As a result, post-surgery last year it made sense to stay north of the border for the first few months of her rehab and it also gave her a chance to reflect on things and gain a positive sense of perspective.
“After the surgery, while my knee was in a brace and I was learning to walk again I stayed back at home with my family in Stirling because I literally could not do anything for myself,” the player with five Scotland XVs caps to her name and international sevens experience explained.
“It was really nice to be at home spending time with family while I was able to see friends from out with rugby more than usual which was really good because for a couple of years before that I had just been mad busy.
“That time at home also allowed me to step back – metaphorically because I couldn’t really walk at the time! – and realise how far I had come in my career on and off the pitch.
“I had begun playing senior rugby with Hillhead Jordanhill after Stirling and to get to the Rugby World Cup in 2022 was a big thing for me and around that same time we were awarded full-time Scottish Rugby contracts for the first time as a big group and that was a confidence boost for me.
“I had been in and around the national team set-up for quite a while by then and had made my debut against Italy in 2021, but I was still just 21 at the time the contracts were coming and was on the fringes of the matchday 23 so to be one of the players to get a contract was a big boost for me.
“It was validation that all the hard work I’d been putting in was worth it and it gave me some clarity on things moving forward.”
Around the lead-up to the World Cup Wills had taken time out of her nursing degree at Glasgow Caledonian University, but went back and finished it in May 2023.
“I never actually started working as a nurse because the chance came last summer to join Leicester Tigers and I was really keen to give that a go,” Wills, who was awarded a second Scottish Rugby full-time contract earlier this year, but is not in the wider squad getting ready for WXV 2 just now as she looks to get back on the pitch at club level first, continued.
“I love being a nurse and everything that comes with it, but I am still young and know that I can go back to it and I wanted to throw myself into my rugby.
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“Leicester Tigers is such a famous name in rugby and being part of their first season in the PWR with a bunch of other Scottish girls that had signed too was something really exciting to be involved in.
“Obviously then the injury came, but after the spell at home in late 2023 I headed back down to Leicester and worked super hard with Terri [Denham, Leicester Tigers’ women’s team medical and physio lead].
“We worked really closely together for the next six months or so and it was so good to work with her she put so much into put and made sure my return to various things was times just right.
“During that time I also realised, following the step back I’d taken when still at home, that I was so lucky.
“Yes, I was missing a big chunk of rugby due to a serious injury, but I am still young and women’s rugby is growing all the time and I can, fingers crossed, play at a good level for years.
“Also, having a nursing background means I know how much some people are suffering in life and for me the ACL injury has just been a setback and one that I can overcome.
“As I said earlier, I have always been a positive person and I feel like that positivity has been back with me since after the first few weeks of my injury while I got my head around things.
“I’m now back with Leicester getting ready for the season and it is ‘take two’ down here and I can’t wait.”
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