An emotional Christian Petracca has shared intimate details of his injury complications, as well as addressed reports that his family was disgruntled with Melbourne’s handling of his King’s Birthday injuries.
The 28-year-old underwent surgery after being diagnosed with a Grade 5 lacerated spleen, four broken ribs and a punctured lung sustained during the Demons’ loss to Collingwood in Round 13, prematurely ending his season.
On Monday evening, Petracca returned to Fox Footy’s AFL 360 for the first time since initially suffering his injuries.
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While Petracca is starting to feel more like himself, he admitted to seriously struggling initially following his injuries — including an unexpected return to the hospital.
“(I’m feeling) better, to be honest,” he told Fox Footy’s AFL 360.
“I think the last four or five days I’ve had a bit of consistency with my days. The first few weeks were pretty traumatic, to be honest, I’m not going to lie — ICU, into a ward and then in and out of hospital.
“I got rushed back into hospital about a week ago early in the morning for a few check-ups — I woke up just with a few complaints and went straight to hospital.
“It’s been quite stressful, it’s something I’ve never experienced. My first year I did my ACL, and I was a bit young and naive and brash and didn’t understand the severity of the injury. Now, at 28, it’s a lot different.”
Asked about his pain levels now, Petracca said: “They’re pretty good, to be honest. Obviously, pain medication helps a significant amount.
“You can start to notice when you’re weaning off them in the early hours of the morning and in the afternoons. I’ve been getting follow-up checks from the trauma — the surgeon at the Alfred and my GP at the club have been awesome.
“There (are) days where you feel great, there’s days where you don’t feel great — and that’s just rehab and the recovery process I’m going to have to deal with for however long it is.”
The star ball-winner spoke of ‘switching off’ from the world around him.
“In the first 10 days, I hadn’t seen anyone other than my parents and my fiancée,” he said.
“It’s been a little frustrating, but also kind of nice to have some alone time with my fiancée and chill out and switch off from the world.”
Since his injuries on King’s Birthday, reports surfaced claiming Petracca’s family was displeased with Melbourne’s handling of his injuries — specifically, the decision made by club medical staff to allow Petracca to continue playing against the Magpies.
While Petracca dispelled reports his family were upset, he admitted there was a “degree of frustration” from people close to him.
“Not really, to be honest,” Petracca said of the validity of those reports.
“During the situation, it was heightened emotion for everyone — not just my family, but my fiancée and myself.
“What you’ve got to understand is that my parents and my fiancée were the only people that could see me in ICU. There’s probably a little degree of frustration and emotion to it because they’re the only ones that knew the severity of the injury … and they saw me (and) that I needed blood transfusions at 2am.
“As any parent or like my two brothers, of course if I had a son or brother in the same situation, I’d be feeling a range of emotions: frustration, disappointment — anything, to be honest. It was a very stressful time for everyone.”
While hospitalised, Petracca deleted an Instagram comment defending Melbourne’s medical staff and the club’s post-game handling.
And, while he didn’t specifically address the deletion after being quizzed about it by Mark Robinson, the superstar Demon sympathised with the club’s doctors.
“Hindsight’s a great thing,” said Petracca. “Had we known it was a grade five spleen and four fractured ribs, I don’t think anyone would have let me back on the field — and neither myself, to be honest.
“I’m a competitor — I want to go back out there and try and compete. There’s so much adrenaline going through the situation; the game, 85,000 people (watching), playing against Collingwood in a big game — I think, in that situation, had I known it was a grade five spleen, there’s no way in hell I’d be going back out there, because we didn’t understand the severity of the injury at the time.
“I felt pretty sore out there, my breathing in some ways was affected a little bit — but nothing that I thought was life-threatening at all … When I was out there, all I wanted to do was just compete and put my team first. Some people call it stupid (and) some people call it brave — I just wanted to compete for my teammates.”
Petracca became overcome with emotion as he spoke candidly of the “most traumatic” experience of his life.
“It’s probably been the most traumatic thing I’ve experienced,” he said, becoming teary-eyed.
“I’m getting quite emotional thinking about it. I think more (because of) the severity of it and how it’s impacted my fiancée — that’s probably been the hardest thing to be honest, I’m not going to lie.
“It’s been challenging for both of us, but we’re getting through it, which is the main thing … sorry. It’s been tough.
“The support I’ve received from everyone, it’s been remarkable — my fiancée, my parents, my family, her parents, my friends, the whole footy world — it’s been awesome.”
Petracca added that his perspective on football has “definitely” changed as a result of his severe injuries.
“I think at the moment, yeah, definitely,” he said. “But it’s still really raw for me. It’s only been three weeks and I haven’t really watched much footy.
“I watched a little bit on the weekend of our game against North. No doubt, with any injury — and I’ve experienced this before in my first year — with the self-doubt and confidence issues and wanting to get back to the player I was.
“But it’s three weeks in, I just need to switch off, trust the process (and) embrace the journey — and it’s hard to say that when you’re two weeks in — but I have to.
“Trying to rush it now is only going to make me go backwards. I need to take each step as it comes and (keep) focusing on little goals.”
After narrowly beating the Kangaroos last Saturday, the Demons travel to Brisbane to play the Lions this Friday night as they aim to reclaim a place in the top eight.