This UGA basketball player's 'goal is to stay healthy' after returning from two knee injuries

Georgia women's basketball redshirt freshman guard Savannah Henderson has had a rough start to her collegiate career.

The top-50 prospect came to Athens in January 2022 with a torn ACL in her right knee, having suffered the injury during her senior year at Timber Creek High School in Orlando, Fla. She graduated and enrolled early, following her mother Katie Abrahamson-Henderson's appointment as head coach of the Lady Bulldogs, and began recovery.

She worked all summer, and it paid off when the season rolled around in November; she was ready to see action. She played the first three home games with ease, scoring four points in the season opener against Coastal Carolina, two points against Alabama State and nine points against Kennesaw State.

But things changed when they hit the road on Nov. 20 to face in-state rival Georgia Tech. She saw three minutes of court time against the Yellow Jackets before injury struck again; she tore the ACL in her left knee.

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"I actually didn't think that it was what it was because my first injury was completely different," Henderson said. "My first injury was a contact injury, my first ACL, but the second one was just me closing out on a trap and it just popped. I thought maybe it was like my hamstring or IT band.

"I went to the back with Yoshi, my trainer, and we did some assessments, and I just wasn't feeling 100 percent. We were getting on the plane to the Virgin Islands the next day, so I had to rush and get my MRI and it ended up being my ACL, so I was out."

With two ACL tears in two years, Henderson has been through an athlete's nightmare.

"Obviously when you tear it the first time everyone kind of makes it a really big deal," she said. "It's like, 'oh my God, your life is over.' But for me, just knowing I got myself through the first one, I knew I could get myself through the second one. I knew it was going to be a lot harder, like 'oh my gosh not again. I barely got through the first round, I don't know how I'm going to do the second one.'

"I definitely had those days where I was like, 'do I really want to do this?' but giving up was never really a thought for me. It kind of creeped in the back of my mind when I had tough days, like when my knee was really hurting or I couldn't get it over the bike to pedal at PT, so I kind of had those days, but honestly, I'm back now, so it didn't really get to me that much."

Because UGA spent Thanksgiving 2022 in the Virgin Islands for a tournament, Henderson's second recovery process was delayed. She spent her holiday in paradise with a torn ACL. Shortly after the team got back, she opted to see the same surgeon who fixed her first tear in New York and since she was doing physical therapy in Athens, she had to catch flights often to keep everyone in the loop and make sure things were smooth on both sides.

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Luckily, she has a good support system.

"My mom, she's the toughest woman I know, so I went into her office, and I was like, 'I don't know if I can do this,' and she was like, 'You can do it, I promise you can do it,'" Henderson said. "She was definitely someone I could lean on. It was really hard for me, but she's really tough and she makes me a lot tougher.

"My dad flew with me every chance. He was at every appointment, every PT appointment, every flight he came with me. I was never by myself."

Henderson said she is blessed to have Abrahamson-Henderson as both her mom and her coach, but the two-for-one deal doesn't come in a super shiny box like people might think. Not only is Abrahamson-Henderson her daughter's biggest supporter, but she's also her biggest critic, and Henderson said that while she loves it, it's a hard position to be in some days.

"Because of this, it kind of never leaves," Henderson said. "If she's watching film and I mess up, she'll send it to me be like 'call me.' I'd answer like 'hello' and she'd (immediately) be like 'Look what you did wrong,' but then she'll always change the subject and ask me, 'Hey how's your day, did you go to class, how was class.' The basketball aspect kind of never leaves."

Henderson returned to play in her first game this season on Dec. 30, 2023 against Wofford. She played seven minutes and scored six points before returning to the bench. She's allowed to play a restricted number of minutes until the end of the season — she said she'll likely stay under 20 minutes per game.

"I feel like nobody really talks about coming back from injury and being out of the game," Henderson said. "I've been out of the game for two years now, so the rhythm, getting that back, and game conditions a little bit, because obviously you can shoot shots every day when you're tired in practice, but when you're in the game, it's different.

"The goal is to get me through the rest of the season healthy. ... It's the best feeling in the world, (being back), because I know I did it for myself. I faced so much adversity and was able to get myself through a really, really hard time."

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Savannah Henderson is back, ready to go for Georgia women's basketball