“I’ve found it difficult mentally,” recently returned Palace Women captain, Freya Holdaway, opens up. “At least with something like a knee injury you can see the progress and map out the steps of your recovery but if you’re suffering from concussion there’s nothing physical you can track.”
“And then you look at the time of year I was on the sidelines: shorter, darker and colder days. Football has always been my pick-me-up, so to try and go through those wintery months without that release was hard.”
The dark four-month spell on the sidelines behind her, Holdaway has returned from her third concussion in just 16 months after Palace Women followed the Football Association’s recommended protocol.