{"id":623491,"date":"2026-10-07T17:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T17:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/623491\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T17:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T17:00:12","slug":"silver-fern-catherine-hall-wont-rush-back-from-injury-ahead-of-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/623491\/","title":{"rendered":"Silver Fern Catherine Hall won’t rush back from injury ahead of World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two months on from a cruel injury that could cost her a place at the 2027 Netball World Cup, Silver Fern defender Catherine Hall says she is not putting any pressure on herself to reach next year’s pinnacle event.<\/p>\n

Hall suffered a serious knee injury at the Commonwealth Games<\/a> in Glasgow in late July, after she had worked hard to get over a foot injury.<\/p>\n

“It was always going to be a push for time and I’ve said to people I think that was probably the busiest couple of months of my life rehabbing and showing up to Mystics training and all of that,” Hall told RNZ.<\/p>\n

“To go down again, coming off the back of the other injury, it did just feel like an extra blow but I just kept saying that’s part of sport.”<\/p>\n

Scans confirmed she ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) during the Silver Ferns’ win over Wales.<\/p>\n

Hall had suffered a freak accident midway through the ANZ Premiership when she jammed her foot into the base of the goalpost.<\/p>\n

At that point, the Mystics defender led all the defensive stats but was ruled out for the rest of the competition<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She broke a metatarsal bone in her foot and had surgery in May to get a screw inserted to help it heal then it became a race against time to try to prove her fitness for the Commonwealth Games in July.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old was named in the Silver Ferns squad, subject to receiving medical clearance, and was cleared on the eve of the tournament<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"GLASGOW,<\/p>\n

Catherine Hall after her sickening knee injury at the Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n

Molly Darlington<\/p>\n

When Hall’s knee buckled under her in the Silver Ferns fourth match in Glasgow<\/a>, she had a feeling it was serious.<\/p>\n

“I felt something pop in my knee and I think as a netballer your brain sort of goes straight to ACL probably is worst case scenario but I think I did know it probably wasn’t the best.”<\/p>\n

When the camera panned to her family in the crowd, it was clear they too were fearing the worse.<\/p>\n

“That would have been a hard watch for them but I was so grateful that they were there. They came down when I was in the room behind the court getting assessed so it was really good to have them there because obviously it’s a tough, tough moment.”<\/p>\n

Hall said despite the tight timeframe, she felt mentally and physically ready when she got on court in Glasgow.<\/p>\n

“I knew I’d done all the work I’d passed all the tests I needed to pass to be cleared to play and I felt ready to go.”<\/p>\n

Hall stayed with the team in Glasgow and sat on the side-line when the Silver Ferns faced Jamaica in the final.<\/p>\n

The Silver Ferns were elated when they broke their 16-year Commonwealth Games gold medal drought<\/a>. Her teammates ran over to an immobile Hall to pull her into a group embrace.<\/p>\n

Hall said it was amazing to be a part of.<\/p>\n

“Despite the circumstances, it’s still something that I wouldn’t have not wanted to be there and I know how hard that team worked to get there, especially with everything that happened in the last couple of years. So it was special to watch that unfold and to be part of.”<\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

The Silver Ferns celebrate winning gold at the Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n

www.photosport.nz<\/p>\n

Hall is exactly six weeks post-op.<\/p>\n

“Which is a good little milestone. It means I can come out of the knee brace and start doing a bit more in the gym. It is a slow process but it is going well and getting there.”<\/p>\n

Hall has been given a 9-12 month time frame before she can expect to play netball again. The very best case scenario would see her start to return to court in May, while August\/September is the more conservative date.<\/p>\n

Hall said she would love to compete at next year’s World Cup in Sydney, which starts on the 25 August but hasn’t put any pressure on herself.<\/p>\n

“The World Cup is a possibility with the time frame so I’m just doing everything I can to rehab as best as possible without rushing it because when I come back I want to be stronger and better so I’m not set on having to be there.<\/p>\n

“If the opportunity came and I was ready then obviously I’d love to but with my injury I want to be realistic.”<\/p>\n

While Hall was coming to terms with being side-lined for several months, she watched on in August as a flurry of announcements came from nearly all of her New Zealand teammates<\/a>, that they were re-signing or heading to the Australian league for the first time.<\/p>\n

The exodus was expected, given Netball New Zealand could not guarantee at that time that there would be an elite domestic competition next year.<\/p>\n

\"Mystics<\/p>\n

Catherine Hall had a fine season with the Mystics before injury ruled her out.<\/p>\n

Blake Armstrong \/ PHOTOSPORT<\/p>\n

Not only did Hall have an injury that would put a potential move to the Suncorp Super Netball (SSN) on ice, there was a risk there would be no domestic competition in 2027, which would remove any chance to get in front of Silver Ferns’ selectors.<\/p>\n

“Before I got injured it was quite a stressful time for everyone not knowing what the competition was going to look like and we were told that we should start looking overseas and that was all happening around the time of Comm Games.”<\/p>\n

Hall too had some conversations with SSN teams.<\/p>\n

“I hadn’t fully decided what I was going to do, but I was definitely considering it.<\/p>\n

“And then being injured and seeing everyone else go over, it is hard because you sort of think about what could have happened if you weren’t injured.<\/p>\n

“I’m happy for them and I think they’ve made the right decision for themselves so that they can keep playing and be in a good position to compete at the World Cup.”<\/p>\n

Hall said it was a huge relief when Netball NZ announced last month it had signed a non-binding agreement with high profile couple Anna Mowbray and Ali Williams to establish a new privatised domestic competition<\/a> from next year.<\/p>\n

The planned league will be vital for the chances of players like Hall, and fellow Silver Ferns squad member Martina Salmon to make next year’s World Cup team.<\/p>\n

“We still don’t know what exactly it’s going to look like but I think it is looking positive as to what it could provide and it gives me an opportunity to play some netball in the back half of the season if I’m ready for that.”<\/p>\n

Hall is studying medicine, but for the past two years deferred full-time study while juggling her netball career.<\/p>\n

During that time, Hall has been carrying out an honours research project into injuries in netball.<\/p>\n

“It’s a little bit ironic isn’t it. I’m just writing up my thesis which is due end of November, so getting close to finishing that.”<\/p>\n

As part of her research Hall got access to ACC data of netball injury claims over a 10 year period to get some insight into trends.<\/p>\n

“When I started it, I hadn’t really had any major injuries and then in the time I’ve been writing it, I’ve had two.<\/p>\n

“It does sort of make it a bit more meaningful and gives a bit more of a purpose … I’d like it to be able to inform injury prevention strategies to hopefully mean that less people have to go through what I have.”<\/p>\n

When Hall eventually finishes her studies, sports medicine is a path she might consider going down.<\/p>\n

“Having gone through a couple of injuries and dealing with the medical system and seeing sports doctors and orthopaedic surgeons, I think it is something I would like to do.”<\/p>\n

Next year Hall will go back to med school in a full capacity.<\/p>\n

“I’ll be going into my fourth year, which is placement at the hospital which I guess is a silver lining of the injury. I’ve had to defer that to be able to play netball so this gives me an opportunity to tick off a bit more of my medical degree.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two months on from a cruel injury that could cost her a place at the 2027 Netball World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-623491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}