She is in an excellent temper, regardless of her discomfort. Her situation ought to have ended her prospects of being an expert athlete throughout her time within the England Underneath-20s.
“There was this huge investigation into my ankles,” O’Donnell recalled. “No one knew what was flawed with them, so I needed to see many specialists till one discovered one thing. He stated to me: ‘You’ll by no means play professionally with this situation’. And I assumed, “Have a look at this area.”
Throughout her sporty teenage years within the city of Maryport in West Cumbria, close to the Lake District, indicators began appearing that one thing was flawed, though she needed to wait till the age of 18 years for the illness to be recognized.
“I stored twisting my ankle, which was not regular,” says O’Donnell, who has by no means recognized one other elite athlete with a tarsal coalition, which hampers the power to soak up shock by the toes throughout excessive depth train.
It did not bode properly, then, with the trials of full-time rugby – no sooner had she signed a contract with England in 2019 than she started to expertise excruciating leg ache.
She initially put it right down to shin splints, solely to be hit with a bombshell analysis after an anterior cruciate ligament harm.
“I used to be despatched for a CT scan, which revealed grade 4 fractures in my legs,” she says, smiling on the ridiculousness of all of it. “It was due to my shock absorption. It was actually painful.
“I got here again after that and performed within the Six Nations 2021, however earlier than Christmas final yr I did all my ankle ligaments in coaching. Each ligament in my ankle simply disappeared, so I had surgical procedure in January of this yr. It was actually tough. At one level, I wasn’t even certain I may run or stroll correctly once more.
“You do not see what is going on on behind the scenes, however there’s been an amazing quantity of labor to even get me again into jogging. To return again and getting my twentieth cap the opposite week was simply phenomenal. I can not wait to be chosen for New Zealand.
Towards all odds, she discovered to handle the issue on a day-to-day foundation, meticulously following a calcium-rich weight-reduction plan to assist her bone well being, an infinite cycle of physio appointments and an individualized coaching plan. An unusually excessive ache threshold superficially acted as an antidote.
“Within the fitness center, once we do jumps, I do lower than everybody else,” says O’Donnell. “I quit just a few velocity components in coaching periods – I’ve my GPS on so that is monitored very carefully – and as quickly because the coaching is over I stand up.
There’s all the time a joke going across the workforce that ‘Cath is not as much as snuff’ – they all the time assume I am enjoyable on the sidelines.”
