Australian netball team player of the year Sharelle McMahon has resorted to surgery in a bid to fix an ankle problem which has hampered her season.

Melbourne Phoenix shooter McMahon, who received the award in Sydney on Thursday night, has undergone an arthroscope after initially hoping the ankle would heal naturally.

"I'm halfway through my rehabilitation and hopefully in another couple of weeks I will be running and doing pre-season with Phoenix," McMahon said.

"I gave it a few extra weeks to settle down by itself. It didn't go away and I thought I might as well get it done and cleared up."

The injury forced her to miss a match in the latter stages of the National League season and she was also affected during Australia's unforgettable Commonwealth Games final win over New Zealand in Manchester.

"At fulltime, when we had to go back on and play an extra 14 minutes, I thought I couldn't go on. I was exhausted and I could hardly even move, let alone run. But your adrenalin kicks in and pushes you on," McMahon recalled.

The 25-year-old shooter, who enjoyed a competition high 84 percent success rate in the National League, said she wanted to work on her defence down the court and variations in her attack.

Australian and Sydney Swifts defender Liz Ellis, who won both the Commonwealth Bank Trophy Most Valuable Player and Target Players' Player awards, said she could possibly keep playing until 2007.

"I had always planned to retire next year when I turned 30, but I am enjoying it too much and I'd like to think I can go forward to the 2007 world championships," Ellis said.

Netball Australia's existing deals with the Commonwealth Bank for the National League and the ABC for television rights expire this year.

NA executive director Pam Smith said her organisation was in the process of finalising the details of a new sponsorship deal with the Commonwealth Bank.

However, Smith said she had not had any face-to-face dialogue yet with the ABC and was concerned about its new policy on signage at sports events.

She added other networks were also interested in covering the National League competition.

"We've been talking to a number of the networks and I am confident that there will be something available for netball on free-to-air television next year," Smith said.

Australia will play three Tests at home to South Africa in the lead up to next year's world championships in Jamaica.

Smith said Australia also hoped to play three Tests in Jamaica in March and National Director of Umpiring, Chris Burton, was currently in that country attempting to firm up details of the tour.

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