Mia King's Season Over After Spinal Fusion Surgery
North Melbourne AFLW midfielder Mia King will miss the rest of the 2026 season after undergoing spinal fusion surgery on a neck injury sustained in the club's win over Brisbane last weekend.
King reported neck pain following the match on 22–23 August. A medical examination in Brisbane revealed a disc injury near her spinal cord. She then underwent surgery to fuse the C5 and C6 vertebrae in her neck — the two bones sitting in the mid-to-lower portion of the cervical spine, the column that protects the spinal cord as it runs from the skull to the shoulders. The operation was successful, and King is recovering in Queensland before returning home to Victoria. ABC News
North Melbourne club doctor Victoria Norbury said the club does not expect the surgery to prevent King from returning to play in 2027. ABC News
The 23-year-old's football career has been repeatedly interrupted by serious injury at the worst moments. King was part of North Melbourne's 2024 AFLW premiership team but missed the 2025 grand final — which the Kangaroos also won — after scans confirmed a posterior cruciate ligament knee injury. ABC News The PCL sits behind the more commonly known ACL and stabilises the back of the knee joint.
King, a proud Jawoyn woman, had been looking forward to wearing North Melbourne's Indigenous Round jumper in Launceston. That milestone will now have to wait. ABC News
The loss comes at a time when North Melbourne's AFLW list is producing talent at every level. The club has the most players of any side selected in Australia's squad for the inaugural AFLW representative match against Ireland — a measure of how deep the Kangaroos' midfield stocks run, even as one of their key contributors watches from the sidelines. ABC News
For King, the pattern is cruel but not career-ending, if the club's medical assessment holds. Two seasons of premiership glory, both partially experienced from the bench. A spinal injury that sounds alarming and is, by any measure, serious — yet carries a recovery prognosis that points toward 2027. For North Melbourne, the challenge is covering a midfielder who was rounding into form just as finals approached, and doing so without disrupting the cohesion that has made them the benchmark side in the competition.
