From a coma to a World Cup in three years - Burton savours comeback

Womens Rugby World Cup Pool A: England v Australia

Venue: Brighton and Hove Albion Stadium Date: Saturday 6 September Kick-off: 17:00 BST

Coverage: Live on BBC Two, BBC Radio Sports Extra, BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport website and app

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It makes me feel warm and fuzzy - Burton on playing in World Cup after rare illness

As Abi Burton listened to God Save the King ring out around Franklins Gardens, the emotions rolled in.

"When we were singing the anthem, my eyes started to fill up and I was like stop it, stop it," she told BBC Sport.

There was pride in those tears. Not just pride in the Rugby World Cup debut to come, but also in making it to the tournament at all.

Three summers ago, the England flanker was in a coma.

It was a few months after her return from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, that Burton first seemed unwell. Then 22, she lacked energy and seemed to be struggling with depression.

Doctors presumed that Burtons mental health had been affect by a serious knee injury.

But things spiralled. Burton had a seizure as she sat at the dinner table with her mother. Her behaviour became manic. She punched her mother in the face. She tried to headbutt her younger brothers and to run out of the house unclothed. Her family, fearing for what Burton might do next, hid the kitchen knives.

She was sectioned to a psychiatric ward in Wakefield, where doctors rans tests for schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. And found she was had neither.

In the absence of a diagnosis, Burtons distress continued.

She would rip cannulas – tubes that deliver medication directly into veins - out of her arms. She attempted to break out of the ward, crashing through magnetic doors and barging through security guards., external

Eventually a specialist in autoimmune disease had a hunch that Burtons mental symptoms had a physical cause. A blood test confirmed autoimmune encephalitis, a rare condition in which the bodys immune system mistakenly attacks the brain.

Burton was too agitated to treat however. So her family made the difficult decision to place her in a medically-induced coma. It was supposed to be for three days. It turned out to last nearly four weeks.

Her parents would sleep in the car in the hospital car park to be near their daughter. They were told that Burton may only emerge from the coma with brain damage. Or may not wake up at all.

When she did come out of the coma she had initially lost the ability to walk, talk, read or write and more than three stone in weight.

"The one thing that really sticks with me is that when you wake up, you think youre alright," says Burton.

"They took me to the stairs to try and walk up the stairs and I just collapsed beneath myself.

"I couldnt understand why my body couldnt do something so basic. Thats when I realised it might be a bit longer of a road to recovery than I initially thought."

While this private trauma played out, Burtons former Sevens team-mates were competing at a home Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

It seemed unlikely Burton would ever return to such heights.

Yet, she did.

Burton had to learn to walk and talk again after nearly four weeks in a coma

After a years intensive rehabilitation, she signed for Premiership Womens Rugby side Trailfinders Women in 2023 and made the Great Britain Sevens team for Paris the following summer.

Burton was called into John Mitchells squad for this years Six Nations and scored two tries off the bench on her debut against Wales.

She did not cross against in the 92-3 win over Samoa on Saturday, but Burton knows not all successes show up on the scoresheet.

"I saw my grandparents, mum and dad, my brother in the crowd during the anthems," she remembers.

"It was just super, super special. They were all emotional as well.

"They went through hell and back over the past couple of years and the fact that we get to come out the end of it and mum and dad can see that Im thriving, my two younger brothers are thriving as well - we just want to experience those family moments together."

There were other well-wishers in the crowd. One of the Team GB doctors was also at Franklins Gardens.

As they met after the game, she pulled up a photo on her phone for Burton.

"It was three years ago nearly to the day that she had visited me in hospital," says Burton.

"I try not to think about the journey too much, to just get my head in the rugby, but it was like woah, that actually did happen."

Burton has won battles far more significant than any match she will play in the next four weeks.

Burton greets her friends and family after England rout Samoa in their second pool-stage game at the Womens Rugby World Cup