Lizanne Murphy determined to recover from knee injury in time for Olympics

Lizanne Murphy was playing a basketball game for her club team in France last Sunday when she went up for a routine lay-up.

But there would be nothing routine about what happened next.

A player on the opposing team took a run at Murphy from the free-throw line. She crashed into the back of her legs.

"The girl took me out," Murphy says. "I knew as soon as she hit me that it was my ACL."

Murphy knew it was bad, but she wasn't ready to admit it. She convinced herself she was OK, got up from the hit and made her way to the free-throw line. She knocked down four shots before the reality of what just happened to her set in.

"I went to take the ball out out bounds and my knee totally gave out on me.I just walked right to the locker room and was like, 'Yup, my season is over,'" she told CBC by phone from France.

Murphy says as soon as she got to the locker room she was flooded with emotions.

The 31-year-old veteran of Canada's national basketball program was on track to compete at the Olympic in Rio this summer. It suddenly sunk in that her Olympic dream might be over.

"I was really pissed off because it was such a dirty play... then I went major doom and gloom,'Oh my god, my life is over, I'm not going to the Olympics.'"

Hope and support

Murphy has gone through a knee surgery before.

In 2009 she tore ligaments in her left knee and she says she was back on the court playing again in under sevenmonths.

Sitting in the locker room following this injury, she says she immediately starting counting how much time she had to recover to be ready in time to play for Canada in Rio.

"I counted the months and I was like, 'OKwait, no, I can still do Rio. Rio is still on the table,'" Murphy said.

Doctors looked at her knee and determined that she did have an ACL tear like she suspected but luckily the rest of the knee was in good shape.

"If you're going to tear your ACL, you want to do it how I did it," Murphy says "There are people that come back as early as four months."

One of the first phone calls Murphy made following the injury was to the coach of Canada's national team, Lisa Thomaidis. She says they spoke about her status for Rio and they both believe that she can recover in time for the games.

"The fact that they believe in me, that I can do this rehab, it does go a long way because you start to doubt yourself.I know (from the 2009 injury) how this rehab is going to go,"Murphy said. "It's really hard, every day sucks and you're in pain all the time ... To have people who believe in me, who believe I can do it, it gives me more confidence."

Murphy had successful surgery to repair her ACL on Friday in France.

She says if all goes well she will be back in top shape by May when the national team gets back together and she says she's determined to compete in Rio for Canada as she's always planned.

"I really do believe. That is the only way you can be. I've been thinking about Rio every day of my life since London, so I have to believe that I can do it."