Emily Gough's ACL Journey: From Devastation to Doha Rehabilitation

Like a lot of other sportswomen before her, young Essendon forward Emily Gough knew immediately when she'd ruptured her ACL.

The then 19-year-old had just signed a two-year contract extension with the Bombers and was running around in the VFLW to get more games in her ahead of the 2025 season when she went down in a marking contest.

Completely shattered, all the thoughts immediately started going through her head. The injury that takes so many players in her league had come for her.

"You hear about so many, it kind of gets lost that another person has just done their ACL," Gough told ABC Sport ahead of the 2026 AFLW season.

"It's a big injury and 12 months is a long time to be out."

By the end of last year, at least 15 players were reported to be recovering from or managing ACL knee reconstructions across the competition. Port Adelaide alone had five players dealing with ACL injuries.

Many of these were draftees or players at the start of their careers.

Gough was going into her second season with Essendon and was devastated she'd miss a pivotal time and not be able to build from her first year at the top level.

"I feel like I'm a year behind (now)," she said.

"I came in with Ames (Amy Gaylor) and Chloe (Adams), and I'm like, 'Crap, I missed a whole year of football', and I'm like, 'How far behind (am I')?"

Gough talked a lot with Essendon head coach Natalie Wood to change the mindset around her injury and find positives from it. They focused on what she learnt off the park and the new perspective she got from seeing football through a different lens.

But that still couldn't give her back the crucial hours missed from playing.

While the rupture occurring before the AFLW season meant time was on her side, her rehab hit some bumps early on.

"I had a bit of a rough run in my recovery, probably from the three to the six month mark, I knew it didn't really get much better," Gough said.

So after two surgeries, Essendon managed to book Gough into a rehabilitation centre in Doha in Qatar.

"It's physio Disneyland, it's crazy… We see a lot of men go over there, but I think it's so big to the investment in women's sport to see some more women go over there," Gough said.

"Hopefully with the growth in women's sports we can start to see more women be able to go overseas, get the treatment that they actually need.

"I'm just grateful for the club that were able to send me. It was a very intensive program."

The Aspetar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital in Doha is the same injury rehabilitation facility that a lot of Essendon's men's players have visited, including Nate Caddy, Jordan Ridley, Zach Reid, Kyle Langford, Lewis Hayes, Tom Edwards and Nick Bryan.

In the five day intensive stay, Gough did assessments, focusing mainly on muscles and joints around her knee rather than the injury site itself. They looked at and tested her glutes, hips, footwork, running and change of directions.

Gough said it wasn't that Australian physios weren't up to standard, but the Doha physios are highly specialised in knees.

"They just see more ACLs, which is the difference, and they see everyone coming internationally," she said.

"Then also the probable difference over there is you get a five day intensive with one physio, and one person that'll help you and intensively work with you, but when you're in a football club, especially unfortunately women's resourcing isn't as big as the men's resourcing, and we have two physios for 30 girls, which is not enough. So you will never have that one on one time for five days.

"I feel like I got that and it showed the importance for me of how much time and investment they gave me, which I was so grateful for."