Christian Petracca has undergone surgery after a shocking diagnosis following a knee to the ribs in the first quarter of Melbourne’s loss to Collingwood on Monday.
The Demons star remarkably played on in the second term before eventually being substituted out with suspected broken ribs.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Christian Petracca in agony after brutal blow.
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But in addition to being diagnosed with four broken ribs, it was also discovered Petracca had also suffered a lacerated spleen and a small punctured lung.
Following an overnight operation he offered a thumbs-up in a photo from his hospital bed on Instagram on Tuesday morning.
In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, Melbourne said Petracca’s pain “increased at half-time” and “despite assessing relatively well” he was only sent to hospital as a precaution.
“Obviously, Christian’s health is the number one priority for us at the moment,” football boss Alan Richardson said.
“The next few weeks will be crucial, and we’ll be monitoring his progress closely to make sure he heals properly and fully.”
Petracca is certain to miss at least a few matches, with Melbourne on the bye this week.
“As his recovery progresses, we will look towards a return-to-play timeline,” Richardson added.
“He’s obviously an extremely important player for the team, but his health and recovery are our top priorities right now.”
The full diagnosis is set to shine a harsh spotlight on AFL injury protocols after concerns were already raised about Petracca returning to the field while clearly struggling with the pain.
Demons officials initially thought he had escaped serious injury.
“He’s just getting a scan at the moment,” coach Simon Goodwin said after the match.
“We’re thinking it might be some cracked ribs but we’ll give more information as soon as we get it — but hopefully that’s all.”
Two AFL players suffered ruptured spleens last year.
West Coast’s Jack Williams was taken to hospital in an ambulance after a tackle at training and lost 5kg as a result of the injury.
He was forced to take it slow in a three-month recovery process, building up from walking to running and contact training before finally being allowed to play again.
Collingwood ruckman Mason Cox suffered a lacerated spleen from an innocuous bump in Round 2 and was back on the field for Round 8.
But he was fortunate not to have suffered severe damage after an episode not dissimilar to the Petracca situation.
“After I had the operation, I was OK for a bit, but for the first four-day period, it was kind of misdiagnosed,” Cox said.
“We thought it was a broken rib and then we looked at the scans further and the radiologist realised he missed something.
“That was internal bleeding, which is pretty crazy to think.
“It was an interesting week, looking back on it, it was pretty serious and the fact I live alone — if something does happen and it becomes like a ruptured spleen, it would be very serious.”
Cox was found to have had “two to three litres” of internal bleeding.
He said he went to the doctor and was in hospital 30 minutes later.
“I had a little operation, like a crazy operation that goes into your spleen and plugs things up and for the last two to three weeks, I’ve just been doing nothing,” Cox said.
“I can’t get the heart rate up, can’t work out or anything like that, so I’ve just been walking around. It’s the most that I can do.”
Cox was so unaware of how serious his injury was that he even trained a few days after the match.
“That was the dumbest thing you could do,” Cox said with a laugh.
– with AAP
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