IN what will be her second game back from a serious foot injury which required off-season surgery, Teah Charlton will notch up her 50th AFLW match.

Becoming a fixture in the side since her debut, her injury was the first time she has had a significant stint away from football.

Having to be ‘off legs’ since the surgery before building up to running again, Charlton spoke before Sunday’s game against Essendon about her injury lay-off.

“My injury has been really hard mentally, especially the first few weeks,” Charlton said.

“I’m a very active person so from always being on my feet to not being able to move around without crutches, [it] was really hard.

“That was definitely a learning experience on how to find ways to be excited for the days where I got around [by] doing puzzles and doing weird things like that, watching plenty of Netflix but once I got [off] the crutches and the moonboot, I just accelerated from there.”

She opened up on the challenge that presented her when it came to running again, one step she was very excited to take.

“[Running] wasn’t as smooth as I’d always pictured it would be like, I thought I’d be straight onto running and it [would feel] amazing,” she said.

“It didn’t really feel awesome cause it just felt super unnatural but to be able to get back up and running was amazing.”

When speaking about her return to football in the game against Hawthorn, Charlton said the anxiety got to her but settled throughout the first quarter.

“It was definitely a big relief, it just meant that I can play out a game and hopefully it can just keep building from there,” Charlton continued.

“Getting over the nerves was pretty hard for me because I can get quite anxious before games, especially when it means a lot.

“I think I just made sure I went through my routine, I got my massage, did all of my skill activation and stuff like that so just doing the main things that I do before games.”

Coming to the Crows in 2020 with their first pick in the draft, Charlton debuted in Round 1, 2021.

When asked about her milestone, she is in disbelief about how quickly the games have tallied up.

“It feels very exciting, I feel like it’s actually come around really quickly, but I think I forget how long I’ve been a part of the system so [I’m] very excited,” Charlton said.

She then described her favourite highlight, the club’s third premiership win which was her first ever.

“The obvious [highlight] is the 2022 premiership, that was just the highlight of my career so far,” Charlton said.

“[It’s] amazing, also to be alongside some of the greats of the game like Erin Phillips and Chelsea Randall and all those girls that have won three premierships, to be a part of one with them was amazing.”

For Charlton, a career in the red, yellow and blue is a dream come true. The Adelaide Crows men’s team was the side she supported growing up and now she plays a pivotal role in the women’s program.

“I followed [the] Crows, growing up I always followed the men’s team ever since my nanna got me around the boys like Kurt Tippett and Taylor Walker,” she said.

“They were her favourite two players so I’ve always supported [the] Crows and [I’m] very privileged to be playing for them.”

The Round 4 matchup against Essendon poses another opportunity to get better at their efficiency in their forward half, something Charlton said they have spoken about during training this week.

“I think that our main focus lately has been pressure and that’s just what every year [our focus] is, we strive off our pressure game and hopefully we can bring that against the Bombers,” Charlton explained.

“I think what we have been talking about is just our efficiency going into the forward 50 and really capitalising off of our forward 50 entries, so I think that’s the main focus.”