A FOOTBALL-MAD student has led her team to success, despite having a metal rod in her spine.

Danielle Gibson, 18, is captain of Stockton Sixth Form College ladies' football team, but a year ago she was undergoing surgery to correct a curvature of the spine.

Grit, determination and love of the game have put her and her team back on course.

Under her captaincy, the team reached the semi-finals of the British Colleges' North-East region seven-a-side ladies' tournament for under nineteens at Huddersfield.

They saw off tough competition from Huddersfield, Grimsby and Dewsbury, but lost to Gateshead.

Danielle became aware of the spine condition, called scoliosis, a year before the operation, when playing football became very painful for her and doctors advised her not to play any sports.

"It caused me a lot of pain and that's how I noticed it, it must have been there all my life, but kept growing," she explained.

She plays midfield or forward and is thrilled to be back playing after a year spent recovering from the operation.

"The thought of playing football spurred on my recovery," she said. "And it's great to be back. We are a very strong team and we all believe that football is a terrific sport for women."

The sports studies student has been playing since she was eight-years old, with encouragement from her father, who was also a keen player for local teams.

Danielle supports Manchester United, and although she has played in mixed teams, she prefers women-only matches.

Her team is also celebrating a £300 grant from the Football Association towards the cost of an FA coach and spends Wednesday afternoons under the critical eye of FA coach Tom Murphy from Billingham.

Tom Ripley, Stockton Sixth Form College director of football and delighted with the grant, said: "We have a very able and keen team. They're a feisty bunch and did wonderfully well to get into the British College semi-finals."