St Kilda footballer Renee Saulitis on recovery from knee injury which ended AFLW season

The South Warrnambool export, who is out for the entire AFLW season with a serious knee injury, was to be deployed at half-back, having started her career in the Saints' forward line.

Saulitis, 20, said she wanted to take a positive out of her predicament.

"I thought I'd had a pretty good pre-season and I'd made a positional change to the back line," she told The Standard.

"It was fun and something new which sparked a bit of passion back as well and I was hoping to play a few more games.

"It is fun working with different girls in the back line and just being able to see what's unfolding in front of you, setting up behind the football and using my strengths like run-and-carry and kicking.

"I think sitting back on the sidelines now I am able to watch the back line do their thing and learn a bit more."

Saulitis, who arrived at St Kilda via the 2020 draft, played nine games across her first two seasons.

Her plans for her third season, which started in August following a revamp to the AFLW scheduling, were thrown into disarray when she did her anterior cruciate ligament.

"I think it's kind of kicked in (the realisation I'll be out for 12 months); it's three weeks post-surgery," she said. "I am getting some movement back and have started some stuff in the gym which is nice."

Saulitis said it took time to get a diagnosis on her injury. She did it in a practice match against Carlton but trained a couple more times after that game before the result came in.

"It was in the second quarter and I told them (the Saints' medical team) I thought I heard a crack which was probably the pop," she said.

"I went to ground and then went off and came back on once I passed all the structural tests with the physios but I just didn't feel right so I was like I'm just going to call it and not play the rest of the game."

She tried to train with her knee taped but "just didn't feel 100 per cent right" and went for a scan.

"It was my body telling me 'something's not right'," Saulitis said.

"But it was so crazy being able to train with no ACL."

Knowing rehabilitation would take 12 months triggered a raft of emotions in Saulitis, who had never previously had a long-term injury.

"I was pretty shocked. Everyone at the club was in disbelief. I turned up to the club the day after I found out and everyone was like 'you're joking, right?," she said.

"It was the first sentence I said to the doctor after she rang me was 'you're joking, right?' and she wasn't.

"I was pretty angry and annoyed but I have kind of just accepted it now and am controlling what I can control and that's my rehab."

Saulitis said an exercise and sports science course at Deakin University would keep her occupied.

MORE SPORT: