'The carrot of football was dangled in front of me. 'If you had told me then that I would only just be playing my first game back I would ask you a million questions because I wouldn't understand. 'The toughest bit for me was I thought I was going to be out for six weeks,' she added. However when she returned to training in July further surgery was required after the lower screw was aggravating her ankle and she was back on the operation table once more.

This was in March, almost a year on from the initial diagnosis. NI midfielder Bell on 'horrendous' surgery and 18-month recovery It took me a while to get back on my feet after the surgery as I was in so much pain.' 'My whole right leg felt like it had been battered. That was then held in place with two screws. 'They have gone in at my knee and drilled a hole from the top of my tibia to the bottom, put a titanium rod in as far as they could before hammering it in the rest of the way. I made the mistake of watching it on YouTube before I went in and it's the worst mistake I've ever made. 'I have a pretty high pain threshold but I have never had pain like that in my life,' she recalled. 'The doctors were hoping that playing would encourage the fracture to heal, but the physio said, as I could still feel it, that surgery would be the best option. The midfielder, along with family and medical staff, chose the latter and she featured from October through to the end of the year but, even though she could play through it, the dull pain was still there in her leg. Weeks became months and eventually Bell was faced with a big decision - have surgery or return to action while managing the injury, which carried the risk of a full fracture. However, six weeks soon passed and the fracture was not healing.

Bell on 'brilliant' start at Rangers and meeting idol Gerrard.

I had been playing football for months with this, but the nurse told me stress fractures normally heal themselves and I would be out for around six weeks.' I ended up getting x-rays and the nurse said I had a stress fracture in my shin. 'It kept going on, and my mum and dad said I should get it checked out. There was a dull pain when I was running, but I didn't think anything of it,' said the 20-year-old Northern Ireland international. 'There was a lump on my shin which was sore to touch.

How to play cricket youtube