MERE weeks from making her return to the AFL Women’s competition, Melbourne defender Shae Sloane has suffered another devastating blow, rupturing her anterior crucial ligament over the weekend.

The 28-year-old injured her left knee during a training session on Saturday morning, with scans confirming a tear on Sunday afternoon.

For Sloane, it is the third time she has been dealt such unfortunate news.

After joining the Demons as a rookie, the former volleyball player tore her right ACL during the early stages of her AFLW debut in 2019, only to re-injure it at training 10 months later.

Completing all of her rehab again this time around, she had intended to pull on the red and blue guernsey in the next couple of rounds.

“Shae unfortunately suffered an ACL rupture during a training session on Gosch’s Paddock on Saturday morning. It was really an innocuous incident, whereby Shae simply went to change direction, and her left knee just gave way,” GM of AFLW Daniel McPherson told Melbourne Media.

“It’s always devastating to see someone suffer an ACL injury, but when it happens to someone like Shae, who has done such an amazing job to get herself back to be so close to returning to play, it’s just heartbreaking.”

“Shae will take the time over the next few days to work through with our medical team the best course of action for her from here.”