KEY POINTS:
It will take more than an oncoming car to stop Fijian powerhouse Vilimaina Davu playing in New Zealand's premier netball league.
Doctors in Fiji have given the former Silver Fern the all-clear to fly to New Zealand tomorrow and join her Force teammates for the first game of the National Bank Cup next week.
Davu, a veteran of 113 netball tests and now player-coach of Fiji, was injured in a car accident in Suva a fortnight ago, the day before she was to join the Force for the first time.
She escaped serious injury but was admitted to hospital with bruised ribs and breathing difficulties after being thrown against the steering wheel.
The Force, semifinalists in last year's NBC, will already be one defender down when they face runners-up the Sting in their opening game in Invercargill on Thursday night.
Veteran Lorna Suafoa is nursing a knee injury received while playing for Samoa.
Another of the Force's mainstays at the back of the court, Silver Fern Sheryl Scanlan, is on her way back from a hand injury.
Force coach Yvonne Willering says it is important to have Davu with the 12-player team for the start of the competition, whether or not she is fit for play.
"I won't know what her fitness levels are like until she gets here," Willering says. "But her sheer presence on court will be a bonus to the team.
"Even though she hasn't been with us in the build-up, she knows my coaching style. Any work we do with her now will be quality work."
Davu will travel between New Zealand and Fiji during the three-month competition, returning home to run training camps with the Fijian side, who are expected to tour Australia in May.
Davu, 30, who retired from the Ferns late last year, has been given special dispensation to play for her native Fiji at the world championships in Auckland in November.
