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November 13, 2015

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Amputee Kovacevic in stunning return

Source: Agencies | November 13, 2015, Friday | Print Edition

NO one would want to be in Natasa Kovacevic’s shoes and very few would even be prepared to contemplate what the promising basketball player has accomplished in the last two years.

Despite needing to have her left leg amputated below the knee after a fatal road accident in September 2013, the 21-year-old from Belgrade made a full comeback in a Serbian league game on Wednesday.

Family, friends and fans packed into a cramped facility on the city’s outskirts as Kovacevic made her “second debut”, amassing five points, three steals and as many rebounds in Red Star’s 78-47 win over Student Nis.

“It is fantastic to be back on the court and I am overjoyed to have returned to the game I love and cherish,” Kovacevic said.

“At times, I feel like the two-year absence never happened. I came out to enjoy myself and I have to thank my team for making it possible.”

One of Serbia’s brightest youth prospects, Kovacevic’s hopes of Olympic stardom came to a juddering halt when she needed to be rescued from the mangled wreckage of her team bus three months after joining Hungarian side UNI Gyor from Red Star.

Having learned that coach Akos Fuzy and general manager Peter Tapodi perished in the crash, Kovacevic’s first reaction in hospital after losing her leg was that she was fortunate to still be alive.

In February 2014, FIBA Europe, the continent’s basketball governing body, declared her a youth ambassador and a month later, she established a foundation aimed at assisting young athletes.

Those developments came in the midst of her painful recovery process, when Kovacevic was coming to terms with the extent of her situation and before the idea of playing basketball again had even crossed her mind.

“Ever since the accident, I decided to take it slow and steady during my rehabilitation but I never imagined I would get this far,” she said after receiving a match ball signed by her opponents in the comeback game.

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