YOUNG Melbourne winger Eliza McNamara had flown through her second pre-season, eager to take the next step in her footy and push for the season seven flag alongside her teammates.

Practice matches were on the horizon, and the season six Grand Final defeat still stung as players completed a stock-standard gym session.

McNamara was completing a set she'd done many times before, even in the off-season: step-ups while holding a barbell with 60kg of weights behind her head.

But this time, her ankle gave way underneath her as she stepped down.

All that weight landed on her neck and back.

The final diagnosis? A compression fracture in her L1 vertebra (about halfway down the back) and another fracture in her T12 vertebra, just above the L1.

In layman's terms, McNamara broke her back. She was immediately ruled out for season seven.

"It just caused me to pretty much crumble under the weight. I don't really remember how I landed, it all happened really quick. But I just remember being up and being down and just being in a lot of pain," McNamara said.

"I was lucky I had people like (physio and teammate) Libby Birch and the strength and conditioning staff telling me what to do and to stay on the ground, and it's scary to think what could have happened otherwise.

"We (Birch and McNamara) already have such a good relationship anyway, she's definitely someone I can go to in the team for anything, so she was straight onto the scene. So many of the girls were, but I just remember Libby saying, 'do not get off the ground, stay on the ground, and we'll get it sorted'."

McNamara went to hospital, where she was told surgery was required if she wanted to get back to football again. Her parents were on holiday, and made a quick dash home to meet their then-20-year-old daughter in hospital the following morning, where surgery was agreed upon.

"The surgeon, I remember he likened it to if you have your feet on a dashboard and then you get in a car crash, it's that same sort of compression of the spine. Obviously, just because of the speed of the fall and the weight, there was quite a bit of bleeding and neural (nerve) damage inside, so lots of caution around that," she said.

"Straight away, when you think of your spine, you think 'can I move my legs?' I remember being on the gym floor wiggling my legs and thinking it was all good. So I had in my head that it wasn't going to be too bad. Then when I heard the damage and that I'd need surgery, I was freaking out a little bit more.

"You get informed of the risks of surgery, and you've already got spinal damage and neural damage and bleeding, and there's inevitably more damage that occurs with the surgery, you kind of go into it thinking there's a risk I'm going to come out and can't move my legs.

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"I was in St Vincent's (hospital) for maybe four nights, and was completely immobile. I wasn't allowed to move, and probably couldn't move if I tried. I was getting rolled over if I had to wee, had to call the nurses any time I needed anything.

"Then I got transferred to Epworth (Hospital), had an amazing surgeon and the surgery went so well. That was on Saturday, and [the fall] had happened on Tuesday."

In terms of rehab, it was back to the very basics for the normally energetic McNamara. A loan of a pilates reformer machine from Daisy Pearce helped enormously, while the progression of rehab for such an unusual injury was often dictated by McNamara's feedback and readiness.

"The first thing was learning how to walk again. I was Zimmer-framing around the hospital and just hating every moment of it, but when I graduated from the Zimmer frame, I'd be tearing laps of the hospital, proving to the nurses to just discharge me and let me out," she said.

"When I was out, the surgeon was very clear that the more I moved, the better it would be for my back. He gave the all-clear for 10 minutes of walking every hour. I took that and ran with it. I'd push it a little bit more.

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"A lot of it was really hard, initially. You lose all your independence. I couldn't lean down and put my shoes on, my socks on, my pants on. If I dropped something, I'd just have to wait for someone to pick it up for me.

"I was on a walk on the bike track, and I dropped my AirPods. I had to just stand there and wait for someone to come past and pick it up for me. You forget how good it is to be able to do things for yourself."

The first proper run – without restrictions – was simply magical, although for non-athletes rehabbing a traumatic injury, the distance ran sounds daunting.

"The first free run I went on was with Paxy (Paxman), and we did two laps of the Tan (Botanic Gardens running track in Melbourne)," McNamara said.

"It was so good, just running with Paxy anyway is a ball of fun, but that freedom to run and go and not care – prior to that, it had been run for 20 seconds and walk for 10 seconds, so that continuous 7-8km was just the best. I loved it.

"The funny thing is, running wasn't really taken away from me when I broke my back. Over the off-season, the exit meeting was 'we need you to stop running and put on size in the gym', so I'd already had running taken away from me."

Rehab aside, season seven was tough for McNamara. Melbourne was absolutely flying, ultimately winning the premiership, and she was stuck watching on.

Initial plans to be the team runner (replacing coach Mick Stinear's brother, Jon) were quashed due to AFL regulations, and she became the conduit on the interchange bench between the coaches and players, manning the phone.

"You see the separation between the rehab group and the main group and when you're in the main group, I hadn't thought twice about it. But when I broke my back, it was just 'how can I lessen this gap between me and the main group, so I am connected and can come back this season still with that on-field connection and cohesion?'" McNamara said.

"I think that role was filling that gap for me, and it made game day that little bit easier. You were connected with the girls, you were learning from the coaches because I was listening to what they were saying, and I was staying in the game from not just my position as the winger, I was having to oversee everything."

McNamara was back in full training two weeks ahead of schedule, 50 weeks after the fall. She played in both the match simulation against Carlton and practice match against Hawthorn, and is hoping to be selected to face Collingwood in the round one season-opener.

"I went home (after the practice match) and just cried to Mum and Dad. The wrath of the past 12 months had finally hit me, and I was just so overwhelmed," she said.

"The Carlton girls were so beautiful after the game, just saying 'congratulations on getting back' – it's things like that you don't really notice until it's been a full 12 months and you've actually sat down and reflected.

"I was texting Daisy, and she said I need to let myself feel pride and not just shut that side down, which is true, and it's hard to do on game day.

"But it's something I need to get better at – feeling proud of myself, of the past 12 months, and not just stressed about what I have to do that moment."