A month after fearing she would miss the Commonwealth Games altogether, star gymnast Georgia Godwin has led Australia to a silver medal in the women's team final.

Godwin had surgery on both ankles in November and unhappy with her preparation, contemplated skipping May's national championships and ruling herself out of contention for Birmingham altogether.

With a month to prepare, the 24-year-old almost pulled out before putting "one foot in front of the other" in her rehab and making it to Birmingham.

That culminated in a star turn on Saturday night at Arena Birmingham, as Australia claimed silver and fell heartbreakingly short of gold to hosts England.

"To get to this point and to put out the performance I did, I just can't thank enough people," Godwin told reporters.

"It took a huge toll mentally and I didn't want to let the team down because I hadn't done the preparation and I almost decided not to trial.

"At Nationals I was pretty much landing on one foot. So to come from there to here, it's been a huge mental battle.

"I was like 'no, I'm done, like I can't do this and my coach was like you have four weeks, that's a long time.'

"So I put my trust in my coach even if I didn't trust myself and I just went along with the journey and I kind of set a deadline as to when I'd make a final decision, and by that point I was feeling a lot better."

Godwin, Emily Whitehead, Kate McDonald, Romi Brown and Breanna Scott were second to England after their first three events - vault, uneven bars and beams.

They even closed the gap to just 0.050 points heading into the final round.

But England starred in the vault while Australia faltered on the floor and were unable to close the gap, with the hosts kicking away to finish on 161.100 to Australia's 157.950. Canada finished third on 152.700.

But if the final result was bittersweet, a beaming Godwin didn't let on.

The silver ensured Australia maintained their perfect record of medalling in the women's team event at every Games since gymnastics was introduced in 1990.

It also bettered the bronze claimed by Australia's 2018 team, which included Godwin and Whitehead.

The silver is Australia's first artistic gymnastics medal in Birmingham after the men finished fourth on Friday.

Godwin, who won three medals on the Gold Coast, qualified for Sunday's all-around final along with vault, uneven bars and beam.

Whitehead qualified for the all-around final and floor final.

McDonald sealed qualification to the uneven bars and beam finals while Brown qualified for the floor.