HOW ABI STAGED A MIRACLE COMEBACK

She learned to walk again and now plays for England

- By Adam Hathaway

ABI BURTON never gave up hope of playing at a World Cup and makes her tournament debut today - three years after a horrifying brush with death.

The flanker lines up for England against Samoa in Northampton after beating the odds to return to the sport she loves.

In 2022, Burton, then a sevens international and Olympic Olympian, was diagnosed with autoimmune encephalitis — a condition where her immune system was attacking her brain.

She spent two-and-a-half months in hospital, 25 days in an induced coma, lost nearly 20kg and had to learn to walk and talk again.

Incredibly, by 2024 she was back in the Great Britain and Olympic sevens squad who came seventh in Paris and she made her 15s debut, scoring two tries, in a 67-12 thumping of Wales in the Six Nations in March.