NEXT STEP: Orange's Jade Warrender is taking the next step in her recovery from a knee reconstruction.
GOOD things are happening for injured Hockeyroo Jade Warrender.
The Orange hockey product was yesterday given the all clear by her surgeon to start running again.
It was a huge milestone for Warrender as she continues her comeback from a second knee reconstruction, which forced her to miss the London Olympics.
The 20-year-old wasn’t going to muck around either and had a training session planned for yesterday afternoon.
“My physio and I had already teed it up because we were confident I’d be right,” Warrender said of her first session.
“I’m really stoked my knee is in good condition. The surgeon said it was 100 per cent.”
Warrender already has her next stage of her comeback planned.
“I’ll go through an eight-week block of running,” she explained.
“I’ll start with straight line running and building an aerobic base. Then we’ll start to introduce change of direction when we know the knee is coping with the load bearing. It’s still a long process.
“I can’t complain at this point in time. This was a milestone I was looking to achieve.”
It was the second piece of good news Warrender had received after recently being told she had been chosen for a Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship.
Warrender is one of five young athletes who will be presented with the scholarships at next month’s presentation dinner.
A large component of the scholarship is she will be mentored by a Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductee and she will find out who that is at the dinner.
“It’s really exciting for me to receive that,” Warrender said.
“The mentor aspect is really important for me to return to international competition.”
She will also get a $5000 sports scholarship and a return economy flight with Etihad.
Warrender is planning to use the flight to join the Hockeyroos when they go to South Africa early next year for a tournament.
“I could go and train with them and watch games and do video analysis,” she said.
“It would be good to get amongst the group again and into the swing of things.”
Warrender is hoping to represent Australia again at the 2013 Junior World Cup in July.
