If you break your neck in seven places, have a subdural haematoma and suffer two lower back fractures, staying alive is the first miracle. Not being permanently paralysed is the second, and getting yourself back to an active lifestyle is the third. But getting back to a stage where you can safely play as a professional goalkeeper? That’s a whole different ball game.
That’s been the challenge for former Liverpool star Rylee Foster, after she was hurled through the windscreen in a car crash on an icy road in Finland on October 16, 2021 and was unable to move. When the Canadian shot-stopper first spoke to Telegraph Sport four months after the accident, she wore a halo fixation device, screwed into her skull in four places, to keep her neck still. And yet she passionately stated her desire to get back in goal again.
On Sunday, remarkably, her comeback was complete, as she made her debut for her new club, Wellington Phoenix of New Zealand, who compete in Australia’s A-League. The game ended in a 1-0 defeat against Melbourne City but for Foster, her family and the medical experts at Liverpool’s Walton Centre, to name but a few, this was a major victory.
Speaking exclusively to Telegraph Sport in the run-up to her first competitive appearance since saving a spot-kick for Liverpool in penalty shootout victory over Aston Villa three days before the crash, Foster - who also suffered a broken cheekbone, misaligned jaw and a partially-torn MCL in her knee during that horrific accident - says it took “an army” of people to get her fit.
“There was always a lingering belief and feeling that I would get back, but I won’t hide from the fact that there was also a lot of doubt from my end, and there were times when I thought I wasn’t going to be able to do it. The journey itself was up and down all the time,” Foster says. “But there was this burning desire inside me to get back on the pitch and redeem myself, and prove everyone wrong.
“That’s just the stubborn side of me. But now that I’m able to stand up tall and say ‘I did it’, it feels really powerful. It brings a lot of pride to myself, my family and to the support staff I had around me.”
After leaving Helsinki hospital, Foster’s sister Mackie moved in with her for six months to help her get through everyday tasks from eating, to getting dressed and washing.
The 25-year-old, who received her first senior call-up for Canada in 2021, said: “I owe my family my life, I’m forever in their debt. And Liverpool Football Club really helped me, providing the necessities and getting me on my feet again, getting me involved in the club and the community side so I wasn’t just sitting on the sides. They were great.
“The Walton Centre did an amazing job of fixing me - I’m so thankful. And I have a psychologist, Mark, a legend, who helped keep my mentality stable. When adversity strikes in the rehab journey, things get really hard and you start to doubt yourself and doubt the process. Patience is the best word for it, for the hardest side: The mental side.
“You know the body is going to respond physically, I knew I was robust, and I could see the progress in my body, but mentally I felt as though I wasn’t overcoming the things as fast as my body was. Having to feel that and deal with that every day, I was in some very dark places and my thoughts were challenging to deal with, but I was very fortunate to have great surroundings.”
Once she had the all-clear to take off the halo fixation device last year, many people might have settled for getting back to normality, and diving around to make saves inevitably comes with extra risk for a neck-injury patient. But Foster says the “challenge of throwing my body around was too exciting,” adding: “I think it’s the thrill. It’s a lot of passion, adrenaline and it’s something I love to do.
“I remember sitting with my family and coming up with things I could do if I wasn’t going to be able to play football again, and I was coming up with the most unlikely sports, like ‘I’ll get into road cycling, because why not? I’ll start doing crazy tours’ just so I was challenged. But once I knew I could get back on the pitch, there’s nothing like goalkeeping. There’s nothing like throwing your body around. It’s the satisfaction of making a save and being the hero.”
On July 15, while on trial at Celtic, Foster’s doctors officially gave her the all-clear to play football again, a moment she describes as like “getting a golden ticket”, and now she feels the club that chose to give her a professional contract Down Under involved a bit of fate.
“It means the world to me, and to sign for the Phoenix, it’s really symbolic I think,” she said. “The ‘Phoenix’ alone says a lot about the story, being something that rose from ashes, so it’s a perfect fit. When the email first came through, my Mum was really honing in on the ‘Phoenix’ symbolism. I could tell it was meant to happen. And the Phoenix took me on as if I was a normal player again, which I’m very thankful for.”
Now a new chapter can begin for this strong-willed athlete from Ontario. She has had ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ tattooed on her arm for a decade and the slogan feels as apt as ever in her tale of recovery.
