‘I Almost Lost My Foot'

The Trailblazing Rugby League Player Reveals Why Resilience Is Everything

- Jackie Brygel

Watching Talesha Quinn help lead the Australian Jillaroos to a heart-stopping victory, it’s difficult to believe the women’s rugby league star was once facing a very different future.

At just 13, with her family by her hospital bedside, a terrified Talesha found herself reeling at the news that she could lose her foot.

“I nearly had to have it amputated,” she says. “I suddenly developed a fluid disease in my ankle and was told I was two days away from losing it. It suddenly blew up and I was rushed by ambulance into emergency.

“I ended up in the hospital on antibiotics for two and a half weeks. That was definitely my scariest injury. I’m blessed to be walking now, let alone playing rugby league.”

In more recent times, Talesha has experienced the devastation of painful season ending setbacks. Five years ago, she dislocated her hip playing rugby union and in the past 12 months she has twice undergone major knee surgeries.