Cricket – Dané Van Niekerk
Women's Health South Africa|January - February 2023
Proteas cricket captain and long-standing player Dané van Niekerk reflects on her biggest injury to date – and the important life lessons it taught her.
Cricket – Dané Van Niekerk

DANÉ VAN NIEKERK CAN’T SIT STILL.

As a child, she was always running around the yard, chucking balls at her brother for him to bat, darting out to collect them, then chucking them at him again. She can’t even lie quietly at the beach. “I can never lie down and tan,” she muses. “I get frustrated quickly. I have to keep busy.” So, it’s understandable then that taking almost a full year off from cricket has been nothing but torturous for her.

In early January 2022, Dané fractured her ankle when she slipped on a wet surface at home. At first she refused to accept that she’d sustained a serious injury. “I kept telling myself, ‘It’s just a ligament,’ even though I was in excruciating pain.” It took one look from the woman in the radiology department to confirm Dané’s greatest fear. Just like that, she was off the field for the better part of 2022. But this period would become a time for learning and growth.

Take Stock

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