MIRACLE GIRL DEFIES DEATH TO GRACE WORLD CUP

HOME FOLKS WERE TOLD THAT ABI BUTTON MAY NOT WAKE UP AT ALL UNABLE TO FIGURE OUT HER CASE

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As Abi Burton listened to God Save the King ring out around Franklin's 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 Burton's 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 had neither.

In the absence of a diagnosis, Burton's distress continued.