Following the Ferns: Before latest FIFA Women’s World Cup setback, Meikayla Moore opened up about shattered 2019 dream

Meikayla Moore will now be able to draw on the resilience she developed after missing the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup with injury as she regroups from her current setback.

The 27-year-old defender is the subject of the latest Following the Ferns documentary which screens on Tuesday (Sky Sport 1 7.30pm.).

It was filmed before the Ferns’ World Cup squad was announced in late June, with Moore the major omission.

The Glasgow City centreback was invited to be a training partner but has since declined head coach Jitka Klimková’s invitation.

But, there is still plenty of football life left in the Cantabrian dubbed “Mouse’’ and she has bounced back from adversity before.

Moore reveals in the documentary that she learnt a lot about her body – and “even more so’’ about her mind after missing he 2019 World Cup after rupturing her achilles tendon three days before kickoff.

The Ferns were doing some speed work after a passing drill at training when Moore collapsed to the ground while doing a high skip off her left foot.

“I thought I had been kicked by the girl behind me,’’ she said. “I fell to the ground and was clutching my achilles’’.

She recalled phoning her mother, who was “meant to fly out the following day’’ to France and “telling her, ‘don’t come’.

“Of course, her answer was ‘we will be there’.’’

Moore had to watch from the stands as the Ferns played the Netherlands, Canada and Cameroon.

Then she went through a gruelling rehab programme before returning eight months later to play for her English club Liverpool in November 2020.

Moore said on the Following the Ferns episode that the recovery period was tough.

“Any athlete that has been through an injury of that magnitude would say the same.

“You essentially have to learn to walk again. You have to get the length and the power, and the progress was so incremental at times.

“The amount of muscle mass you lose in that time … my calf was the size of my wrist it was crazy.”

There were other challenges too for Moore, who has 63 Ferns caps.

“Any athlete that has to go through a period where you are not able to do what you do, you learn a lot about your body and even more so about your head.

“I learned that I defined myself a lot by what I did and I didn’t really know who I was outside football.

“At the time was still relatively young. My self-worth was totally consumed by what I did out there [on the pitch].

“I really had to turn internally, and I had so many months to do it.”

That earlier learning experience may hold Moore in good stead as she overcomes the disappointment of not making a home World Cup.

She has been a professional overseas for six years, beginning in Germany with FC Koln and MSV Duisburg before a two-year stint with Liverpool.

Moore joined Glasgow City last year and helped the club win the 2022-23 Scottish Premiership title.

Glasgow City co-founder and manager Laura Montgomery said the Kiwi defender was “a good leader’’.

“She very much fits our values. We are a club that champions women and girls, but we are also a club that champions change and wants to make a difference in life.

“Meikayla fits that mould for us.’’