Ria Percival will never forget 8.59pm on Friday, 8 April, 2022. It's a date etched in her memory.

Earning her 161st cap, Ria and the Football Ferns were 14 months away from their date with destiny - the opening match of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup on home soil against Norway in Auckland on 20 July, 2023.

First capped aged 17 in 2006, Ria is a New Zealand sporting institution. She played in her first World Cup in 2007 and had represented her country in another three - 2011, 2015 and 2019 - with number five the pinnacle.

As she stepped out at the Queensland Country Bank Stadium, Australia on that April evening, that dream was starting to feel real - World Cup number five, on home soil, stepping out at the famous Eden Park, hearing the crowd belt out the anthem.

Then her world crashed around her.

Typically covering the ground to close down Mary Fowler, Ria, a true box-to-box midfielder, changed direction and went over. She didn't move. Clutching her left knee, she knew it was something serious. Stretchered off, what on earth was going through her mind? 16 years, 161 caps - would she make her day of destiny? Would she play again?

Here's Ria's story, in her own words...

If making the World Cup was destiny for Ria, so was joining Spurs. It was quite a journey to N17, as well, taking in childhood days at Colchester United, the big family move to New Zealand aged 14, semi-professional football in Auckland, a huge move to the USA and FC Indiana, then to Ottawa Fury in Canada, back to Europe and FFC Frankfurt and FF USV Jena in Germany before returning to England and West Ham in the ever-growing WSL and, finally, to Spurs in 2019.

"The great thing for me being at Spurs is that all my family are Spurs fans, my grandad, my dad, all supported Spurs and from a young age, I was always in football kits and always Spurs. I played a lot of sports from a younger age and didn’t really start playing football until I was 11, 12. My mum worked at a sports centre and Colchester United’s academy were doing a summer school, asked if I could join in and I ended up being player of the camp! From there, they asked me to join their academy and that was the start of it... then we moved to New Zealand!

"We ended up moving to Auckland. I was 14. For me, it was quite tough, I’d established some friends, just got into football, but looking back now, there weren’t any girls teams, no real structure in place. I played in a boys team but they said I was too good for the boys, so I needed to move on, and I was put in the women’s national league at the age of 15. From there, it just kept growing. Within the first couple of years of moving to New Zealand, I played in the Under-20s World Cup for New Zealand. For me, that was the turning point, playing around women at that age helped develop my game individually and helped me to mature quite quickly.

"I always knew from getting into it at 11, 12 that it was what I wanted to do. I remember saying to my parents that I wanted to play in Germany. I don’t know why that was. That was my goal. Then, you get to 18, finish school, what do you do? There are no structures in place in New Zealand. I had the choice of going to college and play football or go to play semi-professional in America. My choice was America. I wanted to play. That meant leaving home, moving to the other side of the world and to leave my family behind to go and do that, but it was the right thing to do.

"After America, Canada and then playing in Germany, I signed for West Ham. The WSL was still taking off then. In my first season, we reached the FA Cup Final at Wembley, fulfilling all my dreams of playing in the best stadiums against the best teams. I remember when Spurs got promoted into the WSL, I knew I wanted to go there. It’s been a dream to be here, I’m honoured and happy to be here."