Ameera Abdullah is no stranger to injury.
Abdullah missed seven matches her freshman year with a left shin stress fracture, and she missed four matches early last season after she collided with South Florida's goalkeeper on Sept. 7, suffering a left peroneal tendon strain.
This summer, she reinjured the tendon in her foot and underwent surgery on June 11. She had some bone taken out to tighten her ligament.
She went two weeks on crutches without ground contact and then wore a boot to protect her foot. She wasn't allowed to start running again until just a week before the preseason started.
Eager to return, Abdullah jumped into practice too soon and created more heel and muscle problems for herself.
But after scoring a goal in a 1-1 tie against Colorado last Friday, she appears to be back to her normal, goal-scoring self.
Though Abdullah missed extensive time due to injury last season, she was named to the All-Southeastern Conference second team at midfield and was tied for second on the team in assists with five.
Perhaps her most memorable moment from a year ago was scoring the game-winning penalty kick that propelled UF past Central Florida in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Now, she'll get the chance to do it again as the No. 22 Gators (1-0-1) host the Golden Knights.
A preseason All-SEC selection and one of only three Gator seniors, Abdullah will try to lead a team filled with 16 freshmen, the second-most in the program's history.
"I want to have as big an impact as possible," Abdullah said. "It's your last year. You always want to go out with a bang, do better than you do previous years and really show my potential as a player and as a leader and as a teammate. I think it's very important. I mean, you have 16 freshmen who don't know what it's like to compete at this level and seniors who do. So it's our job to get them acclimated to that and to the way that Florida does things."
UF coach Becky Burleigh is looking to Abdullah and the other seniors to take advantage of their final year and impart their knowledge of the game to the younger players.
"I think the home opener, they're gonna be excited because there's so many limited opportunities for them to play at home now that they're seniors, and I think that they'll spread that to the rest of the team," Burleigh said. "We expect that UCF will be fired up and ready to play, that's for sure."
On Sunday, the Gators will face Nebraska at 1 p.m. Last year, the teams tied 1-1 in Lincoln in Abdullah's first game back from injury.
Burleigh hopes to use these non-conference games as tools to prepare the newcomers for SEC play.
"We challenge ourselves in this non-conference part, and hopefully that pays off in the long run," she said.
