Camperdown stalwart Tracey Baker faces long stint on sidelines after badly breaking her foot

The Hampden league games record holder, who has made more than 400 top-grade appearances, landed awkwardly in the final minutes of last Saturday’s match against South Warrnambool, with the bad news coming through this week that she had broken her first, second, third and fourth metatarsals.

“It happened quickly,” she said. “I was actually trying to defend the pass. We were going down into South’s attacking end and the ball was coming to my opposition centre in the ring.

“We both went up.

“I tried to defend the ball, tried not to get offside and tried not to contact all at the same time.

“When I came down, it felt like my heel stayed still and the rest of my foot twisted.”

Baker soon realised something was very wrong when she tried to get up, and took off her bibs for the final minutes of the game.

She went to the emergency department at hospital, but initial X-rays were clear.

“I was still a little bit hopeful that it was nothing too bad,” she said.

She still held hope when an initial look at a later CT scan didn’t show any obvious issues, but the bad news came through on Tuesday morning that she had broken the bones and also sustained ligament damage around the arch of her foot.

Baker said it was the same injury suffered by young Magpie footballer Henry Bradshaw – who lives across the road from her – last May.

“It’s a one-in-20,000 chance of happening – it’s usually horse riders that do this sort of injury,” she said.

“(It happens) when they fall off their horse and have their foot caught in the stirrup.

“It’s a freak thing to do it in a netball or football match.”

Baker will have to wait until June 9 to have an operation, which will possibly include a combination of pins, plates and wires inserted into her foot.

She will be bed-ridden for a couple of weeks and won’t be able to bear weight on the foot for three months.

All going well, she said, the plates and pins will come out in six months.

It means season 2017 is finished for the popular netballing figure.

“I always said, when I retired, I’d like to do it on my terms,” Baker said. “I don’t know – my hand might be forced. We’ll just have to wait and see. I’ve got a fair recovery ahead.”

Baker said the biggest disappointment was that she is now denied the opportunity to play alongside her daughters Chelsea and Krystal this season.

Krystal was on the bench last round, while Chelsea is establishing a spot in the top-grade haul, playing alongside her mother in wing attack.