Scotland rugby star Emma Wassell is feeling positive and has set her sights on a return to the sport she loves in 2025 after revealing her five-month health battle with a tumour in her chest is over.
The 29-year-old, 67-times capped second-row spent nearly two weeks in hospital after the tumour was discovered during Scotland’s pre-season training block in August.
She then had one operation before a second, a full sternotomy, came in November.
And now she has said via a video post on Instagram: “I am just on my way back from the hospital where I had my one-month consultation to go over the results from my operation and the doctor was able to confirm that the tumour is benign and it is completely removed so I will need no further treatment.
“It is honestly a huge relief and I feel incredibly lucky that it is realistically over. I just need to let my sternum heal and probably recondition my body, but the worst is absolutely over which I am just really, really happy about.
“I just wanted to thank everyone who has been fully invested in me and my crazy old health journey, but hopefully the worst of it is over and there will be a new and improved Emma in 2025, ideally back on a rugby pitch fingers crossed.”
Wassell, the Loughborough Lightning player, can now look forward to Christmas and then her 30th birthday on December 28.
And, given her experience and the fact there is a Rugby World Cup in England later next year, if she can get back to top level rugby at some point that would be a big boost for her and Scotland.
Back in August, Wassell thought she was simply feeling under the weather when her neck became sore at Scotland’s Oriam base on the outskirts of Edinburgh.
An appointment with a physiotherapist did not reveal any obvious cause of pain, but the discomfort continued despite the Aberdeen native taking her doctor’s advice to drink fizzy juice and see if it dislodged any food stuck in her throat.
Wassell then went to A & E in Edinburgh and while in the waiting room her neck began swelling. Following CT scans, doctors found the tumour in her chest which, thankfully, she is now recovered from.
Thanks to N50 Photography for the main image while Emma Wassell is also pictured with Scotland rugby colleagues at the recent BBC Sports Personality of the Year event
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