Shelina Zadorsky, a member of Canada Women's Soccer team, at the BMO Training Field in Toronto, on June 21.Tijana Martin/The Globe and Mail
Shelina Zadorsky has played on Canada’s national women’s soccer team for 10 years. Over the past nine months she was nearly broken mentally and physically. It was no sure thing that she would even be fit enough to be on Canada’s World Cup roster.
She is 30 and along with playing for her home country, she serves as the captain for Tottenham Hotspur in England in the Women’s Super League. In mid-December, after she played three games in a week while feeling ill, Zadorsky was diagnosed with COVID-19.
She took time off to recover and returned to Tottenham’s lineup a month later. Then, in February, she contracted COVID for the second time. And then mononucleosis and celiac disease after that.
Zadorsky finally went to her coach and told him she was too sick to play. As she put it, she had “every sick symptom you can name.” She was also in a dark place mentally. She sat out for nearly three months as Tottenham’s medical staff worked with her extensively. In June, she was invited to Canada’s pretournament preparation camp and a few weeks ago learned she was on the World Cup team.
“It was a bit up and down when it comes to what I was able to do mentally and physically because of the stresses I had going on with my health,” Zadorsky said at a practice session in Toronto last month. “I am thankful that [Tottenham] listened when I needed a break and spoke to the doctors and said I wasn’t in a position to play.
“I am grateful I was able to heal in a way I needed to with my club being able to provide things I needed at the time. I learned things about performing and how you can be your best version. For me it was not playing and I am okay with that. I think earlier in my career I would have played through anything, which I have done for many years.”
Zadorsky, who grew up in London, Ont., was a top junior and played for four years at the University of Michigan. She has played on professional teams in the United States and abroad, and has made 89 appearances for Canada at the top international level.
She won an Olympic bronze medal in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro and a gold in Tokyo in 2021, but was not on the field in the Canadians’ first game in Australia against Nigeria on Thursday night. She will more than likely see action in next Wednesday’s game against Ireland or on July 31 against the Aussies, but when you look at the journey she had to take to get there – to climb one steep hill after another – it hardly even matters. Her story is more about tenacity than anything else.
“Over the last year, I think I learned a lot about myself as a player, as a person, and just the type of leader I want to be on and off the pitch,” Zadorsky said. “I am in a place where I am really grateful for what I went through and to be able to translate that into performances on the pitch. That is what I am focused on right now.
“If I can openly talk about my experience, that helps me move forward in my own way and come back to what I love to do and being part of this team is what I love. So I am in a place of gratitude, a bit more at peace now.”
Canada was held without a goal and tied Nigeria, probably its easiest opponent in group play, in Thursday’s match in Melbourne. It went into the tournament with hopes high after winning its first Olympic gold medal two years ago.
“You go to every Olympics and you go to win it,” Zadorsky said. “You go to every World Cup and you go to win it. That’s the way every top team thinks. You have to believe if you are going to make anything happen and we do, but so do other teams. Nothing is guaranteed.”
Zadorsky has gained perspective through adversity. Many athletes speak about it but few have experienced what she has in such a short time.
“I have just worn my heart on my sleeve and have not really been that fearful of saying what’s true to my experience,” she said. “It hasn’t always been perfect but I think as a professional footballer and as a person I want to help humanize players. It can look very glamorous but at the end of the day we are all human beings doing the best we can.
“Being truthful to who you are and what you have been through can help you and help others so that is how I have to embrace it.”
Marty Klinkenberg