The 26-year-old Hamilton guard is making a return to the Canadian team at the FIBA Women’s World Cup in Australia, her first official appearance since suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee on 6 october.
The Canadians open the World Cup against Serbia on Thursday (11 p.m. Wednesday night), then face France, Japan, Australia and Mali in the group stage. Nurse, who last played with the national team at the Tokyo Olympics where Canada failed to advance to the preliminary round, hopes to see her playing time increase with each game.
Veteran Natalie Achonwa, who suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her final season at Notre Dame, reassured Nurse, telling her not to “put weight on her shoulders.”
“She looks great,” Achonwa said. I tell Kia every day that she just needs to be herself. I’ve been there and I realize the mental and emotional strain it takes.
Physically, Nurse noted that because she was confined to the weight room for much of her rehabilitation, she is stronger than ever. She added that she hasn’t forgotten how to pass, dribble or shoot, now it’s all about being able to execute everything faster. Mentally, she says she realized she was “really resilient.”
“A hell on earth” for the Mercury.
Nurse fought back tears Monday as she recalled the darkest days of the season, “hell on earth” for the Mercury.
In early August, when Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison in Russia, Kia Nurse and her Phoenix Mercury teammates followed the harrowing court proceedings on their phones in the locker room.
The Mercury hosted the Connecticut Sun later that day, and players from both teams hugged in the middle of the field before the game for a 42-second moment of silence — a nod to the jersey number of Grind with the Phoenix club.
“It was really difficult to play this match. I don’t know how my teammates did. It was really difficult to play an entire season without her,” acknowledged Nurse.
“BG is the best of the best among human beings,” she said of Griner, an eight-time WNBA all-star who was convicted of drug possession and trafficking after being found less than one gram of cannabis oil in his luggage.
“It was huge to not have her on the pitch this season, not to take advantage of her attitude, her energy…and the fact that she’s not home yet is disheartening. We did our best as a team to make sure her story was known, to make sure her name was put forward as much as possible… but you go to practice and you wonder what she is doing. do. »
Desert crossing
Nurse’s knee injury had already made this past year the toughest of her career.
“There have been a lot of good days, a lot of bad days, a lot of tears, a lot of anger, but also a lot of small wins along the way,” Nurse said in a video call from Sydney, Australia. Physically, it went pretty well. But mentally, it was difficult. There have been ups and downs. »
She spent several months of her rehabilitation period at her home in Ontario, enjoying the support of her boyfriend John Robinson IV and his family.
She also sought advice from her brother Darnell, an Edmonton Oilers defenseman, and her uncle Donovan McNabb, a 13-year-old NFL veteran who also tore his anterior cruciate ligament.
“We’ve been through hell on earth this year as a team,” Nurse said. And not being able to be there with them was one of the hardest things and that’s where my patience was tested. I haven’t been as patient as I would have liked, but it’s a process and even at this point there’s nothing I can do to speed it up. »