“It’s been really, really tough. Probably the most traumatic thing I’ve experienced in my life,” Petracca said on the Howie Games podcast. “The trauma of everything … it’s actually not necessarily the incident of it, it’s the aftermath of it. The surgery in general was a really traumatic experience: being awake for it, internal bleeding, wasn’t able to be put to sleep under anaesthetic. I can think of every single thing happening at that time.
“This must have been 3am … I didn’t know at the time; I was drugged up. Bella [Petracca’s partner] came to the ICU the next day and basically said that at three in the morning … we got the number off the surgeon because he called to say you might not make it, basically. He’s in critical condition.”
The fall-out from the King’s Birthday clash for Christian Petracca and the Demons continues.Credit: AFL Photos / Getty Images
Before he returned to play, the Demons’ doctors doubted Petracca had suffered a punctured lung, as reported by The Age.
“Like anything with a broken rib, or a cracked rib, you certainly get some pain relief and see how you can go on. It’s standard process when you’re working through these type of injuries,” Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin said after the King’s Birthday match.
“It was pretty evident that he wasn’t going to be able to play on, so we just pulled it straight away at half-time.”
Demons medical staff were questioned the following day by the AFL’s chief medical officer Dr Michael Makdissi as to why Petracca was allowed to return to the field, but the AFL found that the correct protocols were followed.
“The AFL chief medical officer has spoken to Melbourne’s doctors in relation to their management of Petracca yesterday. The AFL is comfortable with the processes Melbourne adopted,” AFL spokesman Jay Allen said at the time.
Days later, AFL executive operations manager Laura Kane said that while “clubs are always trying to get better”, the Demons’ “process was OK”.
“The clinical assessment by the doctors was standard,” Kane said.
While the Demons’ doctors will likely face more questions, Petracca – a day after the serious injuries – said he was responsible for heading back onto the field.
“I’m responsible for putting myself out there by the way for people talking about the medicos,” Petracca said on Instagram.
In a later radio interview, he added: “I have been in a similar situation a couple of years ago when I fractured my leg in the first quarter and did the same thing. I just went out and played the next three quarters because you are on adrenaline, you don’t really know what’s going on. Had I known now the severity of it, I obviously wouldn’t have gone back out there.”
