West Coast Fever captain Courtney Bruce may be known as the smiling golden girl of WA netball, but the star Australian goal keeper has revealed the depths of her personal struggle with anxiety which has been with her during her career.

Signed to Fever, then the Perth Orioles, at just 16, Bruce has gone on to become a superstar of the game, helping the Diamonds claim silver in last year’s Netball World Cup in England, as well as competing in the 2018 Commonwealth Games and leading the WA-team to its first ever grand final that same year.

For Bruce though the journey has not always been easy, revealing she has dealt with her own demons off the court.

“I’ve struggled with my own mental health and that constant overthinking when I was younger,” Bruce told Super Netball’s website.

“Anxiety is like it’s own monster, it can eat you from the inside out and that’s definitely what it was doing to me.

“It is crazy to think that was such a challenge for me not so long ago.”

Bruce admits she never understood why she was recruited as a teenager, plucked from Southside Demons in the WA Netball League to the national competition before even being allowed to drive.

“You’re just so young and immature and I was like ‘what has this coach seen in me? What have I done to deserve this?’,” she said.

“I would stuff a pass up or I wouldn’t win a ball and it would just be like ‘you’re not good enough, why are you here?’.”

“I would have a great training session and I would be told that 10 times over by (coach) Stacey (Marinkovich) or our assistant coaches and I just wouldn’t be able to hear it. I wouldn’t believe it either.”

Bruce said though for all the hard times netball throws at her, on the court was still where she loved to be.

“Obviously we all have our bad days and the days I hate being on the training track, but if I am ever off for an injury or if I’m sick, there’s only one place I want to be and that’s obviously back at the courts,” she said.

“I definitely think netball made me just feel more comfortable in who I was.”