Jul 21, 2026 – 5.00amIn 2016 former Opals star player and Olympic medallist Lauren Jackson was forced to retire. She had had 17 knee operations and could not get on top of her injury.“At that point, I was really aware that my identity as a basketball player was gone. The phone stopped ringing. I didn’t have to go to the gym [in the] morning,” Jackson, chief strategy and basketball partnerships officer for the WNBL Australia, recalls.Subscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Sally PattenBOSS editorSally Patten edits BOSS, and writes about workplace issues. She was the financial services editor and personal finance editor of the AFR, The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. She edited business news for The Times of London.Iona RennieProducerIona Rennie is a producer at The Australian Financial Review.Fetching latest articles