W-League: Newcastle Jets player and Matilda Larissa Crummer back in the gym after a broken leg

While her Matildas teammates have been finalising preparations for France, the Newcastle Jets player has instead begun a lengthy rehabilitation process.

Crummer broke the fibula and tibia in her left leg in Newcastle's 2-1 victory over Adelaide in round 13 of the W-League on January 25.

Eleven weeks on and the determined 23-year-old is off crutches and doing everything she can to get back on the park for the start of the W-League season.

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"I'm in the gym six days a week," Crummer told the Newcastle Herald on Wednesday. "I'm not running yet. I'm just off crutches, trying to get my walking back to normal. 

"I'm still waiting for one of my scars to heal so I can get in the water and start swimming. But I've been on the bike and just got the clearance today to lift a bit more weight, which is good."

The striker-cum-defender knew instantly her leg was broken after colliding with Reds goalkeeper Sarah Willacy.

"I felt everything and I knew straight away," Crummer said. "I heard it and I felt it and as soon as our physio came on I said, 'You need to get the ambulance here. You need to get me the green whistle. I've broken my leg'. Everyone around me knew too from the sound it made."

Her first thought was of France and the World Cup, which starts for Australia on June 9.

"When the doctor, who was also the Matildas doctor, came on, the first question I asked him was, 'Is World Cup still in the question?' He just said, 'No. You're nine to 12 months'," Crummer said.

"That was obviously disappointing. Everything I worked towards for the last three years has been for the World Cup."

The next day she had surgery to stabilise the bones then had further operations after complications with compartment syndrome, which occurs when pressure within muscles builds.

"That's what really set me back a lot," Crummer said. 

"I was in hospital for two weeks with an open leg just waiting to get the swelling out. 

"The doctor said the break was so bad that the fluid and blood had nowhere else to go. I was pretty lucky they caught it when they did because they said I could've lost my leg."

The pain was as much mental as physical when she left Adelaide and headed to her family base on the Queensland Sunshine Coast.

"When I left Adelaide and I was going back home, I thought, 'I should be heading into Matildas camp and instead I'm going home to sit on the couch for a few weeks and do nothing'," Crummer said.

"Even now, I watch the girls on TV and it hurts, but I'm still going to support them 100 per cent in everything they do."

The Jets flew her parents to Adelaide in a move that will make her forever grateful.

"I've never been part of a club that would do that for a player ... that definitely helped me through," she said.

Repaying the favour by returning to the field, stronger than ever, in Jets colours is driving her rehabilitation. But the recovery time frame remains an unknown.

She has made Newcastle her home base and is working under Jets strength and conditioning coach Erin Wilson out of Urban Base Fitness at Gateshead most days.

"It depends on how my bone heals," Crummer said.

"It's 11 weeks and every time I see a physio they say they can't believe I'm walking around as well as I am.

"I've heard it could be nine to 12 months, I've heard it could be less. I've heard I could be back for the start of the W-League season. I think a lot depends on me and how well I do everything.

"But I'm the type of person where if someone says you're going to be halfway through the season and you'll be back then I think, 'OK, I'm going to try to be back for the first game'.

"I want to play for the Jets again. I've never been part of a club that would pretty much do anything for a player."

Crummer has had a stint commentating Herald Women's Premier League with BarTV and has been getting along to matches to stay connected to the sport she loves.

She will also be part of a panel at Wallsend WPL's Breaking Down the Barriers sportsperson's lunch at Wallsend Diggers on Friday.