Forget basketball for a second.
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Gemma Potter would spend days not wanting to see another soul. Two anterior cruciate ligament ruptures in as many years which took away a dream will do that to just about anyone.
It's easy to forget Potter is only 21, even easier to disconnect from the memories of her WNBL debut for a championship-winning Canberra Capitals team as a 17-year-old.
Because the prodigiously talented youngster has spent more time under the knife than she has on the court for Canberra's past two campaigns - but Potter hopes that is all about to change.
Potter was in this same spot 12 months ago, making a comeback from an ACL rupture in the first game of the season. She lasted just eight minutes before her knee blew out again - this time, her other one - and few could forget the scream piercing through an otherwise deathly silent National Convention Centre.
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"There's been very down days and days when I didn't want to see anyone," Potter said.
You might have understood if Potter had decided it was all too much.
Yet here she stands on the cusp of another comeback game with the Capitals set to face the Adelaide Lightning a stone's throw from the city centre on Sunday.
"The little wins feel so much greater than they probably are. First steps, first walking, the running, you get to celebrate all the little wins," Potter said.
"It's been hard but getting to come out the other side and be here playing again is pretty awesome."
Potter first emerged on the scene as a fresh-faced rookie for a Capitals outfit on their way to back-to-back titles under Paul Goriss. A leg injury would keep the rising star out of the finals, but it felt like the best was yet to come.
Since then? She has played eight minutes in the WNBL. So few you could count them on two hands.
Potter was bound for the United States for college before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. She backed out of a four-year scholarship and opted to stay on home soil.
The ACL ruptures - first while playing for Victoria at the under 20 national championships in May 2021 and the next in her WNBL comeback - wiped out the next two seasons.
Potter underwent surgery in Melbourne, and while she was stuck at home with her mum playing the role of nurse, she knew she wanted to mount another comeback.
Which is why you would find her asking Capitals coach Kristen Veal to do extras during pre-season training - a trait normally reserved for the unhinged.
"I was the one asking for more running, more up and backs," Potter grinned.
"We have a pretty good group this year, we all want to push each other to the max, and it's no different with me coming back from injury, the girls understood that's kind of what I needed, just to feel like I can play basketball again, being out for long.
"It feels pretty surreal. The last 10 months isn't something I expected. Obviously it wasn't what we hoped for last season, but having the time to prepare myself and having the full pre-season with the girls was pretty unreal. It just sets me up for success in this upcoming season, hopefully injury-free."
So what's going through her mind on Sunday afternoon?
"Just get through a quarter," Potter grinned.
"Nah, just all the little wins. It's been a big two years, but just stepping out on that court is a win itself, knowing I can do it and trusting all the work I have done in the last two years, and especially the last 10 months, to get through it is probably what's going through my head. I'll block out anything else.
"I think it's going to be a pretty surreal experience. I've got about 10 people coming up from Melbourne, so having my family and closest friends, people that have been there every day, it will be a pretty cool experience."
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