Indy Tahau during the AFLW Round four match between Port Adelaide and Geelong at Alberton Oval, September 23, 2023. Picture: AFL Photos

INDY Tahau didn’t just rupture her ACL. She turned the joint to mush.

And as bad as the injury was, the rehabilitation process has been even tougher. But today, 695 days of hard work later, Tahau will return to the footy field.

September 23, 2023

A premiership defender, Tahau was playing forward in Port Adelaide’s clash with Geelong when she twisted the wrong way on the edge of half-time.

“As soon as I planted my foot and that sort of internal rotation of the shin fell and collapsed inwards, I was immediately in so much pain. I definitely felt the whole injury happen,” Tahau told AFL.com.au.

“It wasn’t just an ACL, it was the whole lot. So, it was very painful straight away, so yeah, I knew the damage was very big.”

ACL, MCL, partial PCL, and significant damage to her meniscus, from one wrong turn.

“Straight away I had no stability at all. Like, it was completely just mush in there,” Tahau said.

“Because I was strong and I forced my leg into that movement with a lot of power, it’s cracked the whole thing. So, I couldn’t even stand up on it.”

One week later she underwent significant reconstructive surgery to repair the ACL with a patella tendon graft, the MCL and PCL, and a few stitches were thrown in to fix the meniscus. 

Because it wasn’t a straightforward ACL repair, Tahau was on a brace for eight weeks, not permitted to put weight through the leg.

Late November 2023 – two months post-op

Eight weeks post-surgery, in a typical rehab the athlete would have quad control back, a block of strengthening under their belt, a reasonable range of motion, and time spent walking or using a stepper/elliptical machine.

That wasn’t the case for Tahau.

“They braced me and I wasn’t allowed to weight bear for almost two months, because of the damage of my meniscus I couldn’t put weight through them and tear those stitches,” Tahau said.

“I was also braced, so it restricted my ability to get range back through my knee, and it’s almost like the scar tissue had healed really intensely, and it healed my leg almost straight. “So, by the milestone that I was supposed to be at by eight weeks, or even three months post… I couldn’t get my leg past that scar tissue.”

That meant it was time for another surgery to clear out some scar tissue and conduct another meniscus repair, which meant no weight bearing for another six weeks.

“By this stage I’m almost three months in and I’m really just at the start,” Tahau said.

January 2024 – four months post-op

A typical ACL rehabber at this point would be focused on strength training and building confidence in the joint once more.

However, Tahau was just starting the process of getting control back in her quad muscle and establishing a range of movement again. 

Ticking her legs over on the bike and spending plenty of time in the pool gave her some freedom of movement without putting too much pressure on her knee. But progress was slow.

April 2024 – seven months post-op

Even after months of physiotherapy and diligent work from Tahau, she was struggling to gain and maintain muscle through the leg. From her foot, all the way up to her hip, her leg was failing to function as it should.

“I lost so much muscle that it was really hard to regain any natural biomechanics of how I’m supposed to move and lift weight. So, by the seven-month mark, I was still experiencing so much pain in pretty much every exercise,” Tahau said.

“So, we had a scan and we had to perform another surgery.”

Indy Tahau struggled to gain muscle in her leg. Picture: Supplied

She was flown to Melbourne to meet with highly-respected surgeon Professor Julian Feller, who once again cleaned up some scar tissue and removed the screw implanted in the initial ACL repair.

“The constant re-entering of my knee just kept traumatising that part of my body, and obviously my brain and the connection there just wanted to protect it. ‘Oh, we don’t need to use it, let’s just do nothing on that side of my leg, I just need to protect it,’ so again, I lost a significant amount of muscle after that because I was not weight bearing for another four weeks,” Tahau said.

“And then things started to get a little bit better. After that, the pain was a little bit better, but now the biggest challenge I was facing was that I had no muscle in that leg whatsoever.”

An eight-month strength program followed in an effort to re-establish connection through the leg, and the trust in her mind.

Indy Tahau struggled to gain muscle in her leg. Picture: Supplied

“We managed to start again and get the legs ticking over on the bike and start with simple movements,” Tahau said.

“Contracting the quad again, getting the glute and the calf and the quad muscles to talk to each other and connect again.”

December 2024 – 15 months post-op

By this time, Tahau’s Port Adelaide teammates had finished their season. Having recorded an eight-game winning streak and reached the preliminary final, it was a tough campaign to miss.

Everything had built up in her mind. More than a year of setbacks, frustrations, and loneliness, and she hit the lowest point of the journey. She was finally running – straight lines only – but mentally she was shot.

“The program I had was OK, but there wasn’t enough specificity for everything I had going on, but I didn’t know how to get past that,” Tahau explained.

“By December, I was in Queensland, and I just hit my threshold. My mind was trapped in thinking that I was broken because I was still experiencing so much pain in everything that I was doing, and there was so much dysfunction in my leg, I just didn’t know how I was going to keep following this program and get any progress.”

It was this dysfunction that Tahau found the most difficult. Sure, there was a strained relationship with footy, and a disconnection from her teammates, but it all came back to her inability to trust and move her body in her day-to-day life.

“That’s why I hit my lowest point around Christmas time, and I was still experiencing all that pain. I was like, I can’t perform daily activities right now, how am I going to be an athlete?” Tahau said.

January 2025 – 16 months post-op

Tahau packed up her car and drove to Melbourne, intent on working closely with specialist strength and conditioning coach John Povey. Good friends Jesse Wardlaw and Arianna Clarke opened their homes for her, and she spent two months working with Povey twice a day, every day.

“That just consisted of, like, there were so many patterns… the talk between my foot, from my lower leg to my quad, to my hips, all that dysfunction was just stopping my ability to be able to gain and maintain muscle,” Tahau said.

Indy Tahau with Arianna Clarke and Jesse Wardlaw. Picture: Supplied

“These patterns needed constant, good quality reps, repeated and repeated. I drilled that into my biomechanics, into my brain, how to just move again… I just learned how important it was to peel back the layers of a program and understand why we actually do the exercises we do.”

The time in Melbourne was worthwhile, but that didn’t mean it was easy. 

“That was also one of the biggest challenges, while I was there. I was home sick, and I just wanted to be at home… I missed being comfortable and in my own space and all those feelings of like, you’re intruding and just all that stuff, and paying rent when I wasn’t at home,” Tahau said.

“I definitely leaned on family and just tapped into my own qualities and how I could just better myself from the whole experience, and also bring up the people around me because I know that it didn’t just affect me.

“The whole injury has been a big strain on my whole family’s interest in football.”

Indy Tahau and Abbey Dowrick at the Port Adelaide Team Photo Day at Alberton Oval, July 18, 2024. Picture: AFL Photos

June 2025 – 21 months post-op

All the hard work had paid off. Tahau was able to arrive for the start of the 2025 preseason feeling confident in her body, and ready to dig in.

As a person, while still just 22 years old, she had matured significantly over the process. Studying psychology at university, Tahau developed a newfound interest in biomechanics and hopes to pursue something that connects the two fields post-footy.

And she now understands a lot more about herself, and her ability to rise to challenges.

“We all have an amount of resilience in us, but it’s definitely the experiences and challenges we face that builds that for us and helps us develop those qualities,” Tahau said.

“This has definitely shaped the way that I approach challenges and I look at it as opportunities now and how I can come out on the better side of anything that I’m going through. It’s definitely a big part of my resilience for sure.”

Indy Tahau during the AFLW Round five match between Gold Coast and Port Adelaide at Bond University, September 25, 2022. Picture: AFL Photos

August 17, 2025 – 695 days post injury

Tahau will return to the field in Port Adelaide’s round one match against Fremantle, lining up in her home down back.

“Honestly, I’m so ready. It means everything to me, I have poured everything into this rehab and unlocked so many new areas of myself as an athlete,” Tahau said.

“I’m so proud of myself, and the best part about this is (that) I get to perform and show what I’ve been doing this whole time and how much work and commitment and sacrifice and dedication that I’ve put into myself and this rehab.

“It’s so rewarding, and it pays off. It feels like Christmas.”