Michael Burgess, NZ Herald

All top sportspeople make sacrifices, but it’s hard to imagine many making them to the same degree as Kiwis Ferns forward Krystal Rota.

Rota, who was one of the standout players in the Ferns’ impressive 26-16 win over Australia in Newcastle on Friday night, estimates she has spent nine months in hospital over the last two years.

Her two year-old daughter Nikayla was born with a serious kidney condition, which requires her to spend long periods of time in hospital.

Despite this, Rota has kept up her sporting career, often training by herself in a field near the hospital.

“To be fair, I don’t know how she does it,” said coach Alan Jackson. “When her daughter is sleeping, she goes and trains at Cornwall Park, runs through One Tree Hill. What she is doing is pretty exceptional.”

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