Early strike as Sharland named captain

A New Zealand Hockey press release yesterday about Kayla Sharland captaining the Black Sticks to Argentina next month rather spilt the beans.

She has been in Auckland for the past month training and repairing a worn hamstring to be fit in time to board the aircraft for the World Cup in Argentina.

The team wasn't to be named until today, but after Sharland missed the Champions Trophy in Nottingham because of injury, the release said Sharland as captain would "be on hand to answer questions" after today's team announcement.

Thus she was the first player picked and the captaincy will stay with a Manawatu player, a world-class striker the team badly needs.

Manawatu's Emily Naylor wore the captain's red ribbon during the recent Champions Trophy tourney in England.

Naylor joined the Black Sticks for their first squad session yesterday after a week off in Palmerston North.

Sharland has been frustrated by her injury and is keeping "fingers crossed" that her month away from hockey has done the trick.

"It was a good thing in hindsight to get it right," she said. "After this I will try to get everything right and have the summer off."

Sharland, 24, patiently answers questions about the injury. Her left leg has pained her since she was chopped down by an Azerbaijani player in Rome in 2006. The latest episode started in October.

Sharland was being groomed as New Zealand's drag-flick shooter, but the twisting puts load on the body so Clarissa Eshuis has taken that role with the Black Sticks.

"I don't train it that much and I won't be doing 100 a day," Sharland said. "I can still step up and do it."

She checks into the Millennium Institute gym at North Harbour twice a day for strength training.

While playing in the Netherlands, she could manage it because games were played only on weekends, but she did see doctors there, too. And she had to bypass New Zealand's series in Perth to give the leg a chance.

"When I came back it was feeling pretty good, but I had lost lots of power in it."

She'd like to return to play in The Hague, but that's in doubt, for the first half of the season anyway. The left leg has got weaker because of the damage.

- © Fairfax NZ News