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Amputee makes stunning return to professional sport

Kovacevic with the ball, plays with her prosthetic leg under tights, on her left leg. Photo: AAP

Kovacevic with the ball, plays with her prosthetic leg under tights, on her left leg. Photo: AAP

A basketball player who had her lower leg amputated following a road accident has made her professional sporting comeback in one of the most inspirational stories of 2015.

Natasa Kovacevic, 21, suffered the horrific injury when the bus carrying her Hungarian team Gyor crashed in 2013, killing her coach and general manager.

After signing with her new Serbian club Red Star Belgrade in early November, Kovacevic debuted for the side on Thursday (Australian time), completing a miraculous recovery that many thought would never happen.

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Kovacevic, with the ball, plays with her prosthetic leg under tights on her left leg. Photo: AAP

“I’m really thrilled to be alive, let alone playing basketball again,” Kovacevic said after the match, according to Yahoo.

“It’s like these two years did not happen at all.”

Red Star won the match in Serbia’s top women’s basketball league 78-47 against Student. Kovacevic scored five points.

Her Twitter bio, and personal motto, reads: “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger CARPE DIEM!”

She stands at 6ft 2in and was a bronze medallist at the European Under-18 Championships in 2012.

Kovacevic represented Serbia at every youth level and was regarded as one of the country’s most promising basketball players.

With the help of prosthesis and after two years of painstaking and committed recovery, Kovacevic was able to put the crash behind her.

According to the Serbian Basketball Association, she is the first disabled European basketball player to take part in professional, able-bodied sport.

The prosthesis she wears while playing was specially made for her.

In a video of her during the comeback game, she can still be seen limping while moving around the court.

In 2014, Kovacevic was appointed as a youth ambassador for the International Basketball Association (FIBA).

Following that appointment, she established a fund to help young athletes known as the Natasa Kovacevic Foundation.

Kovacevic had previously briefly taken part in a Women’s European Basketball All-Star match in June 2015.

Here’s a video from Kovacevic’s comeback to the court:

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