Cousins doesn’t know how the blow happened, but the effects were severe enough to send him to the emergency ward at Epworth Hospital for a few hours in the early hours of Friday morning.
Until he was forced from the ground, Cousins had played an encouraging match in his return to the top-level, knocking up 21 touches and showing glimpses of the brilliance that earned him a Brownlow medal and an AFL flag.
Richmond’s general manager of football, Craig Cameron, said Cousins had received the standard post-match treatment for a concussion victim.
“One of our football department guys drove him home, and his sister and a friend of the family stayed with him," Cameron told Richmondfc.com.au.
"And they decided during the night that he needed further attention, so he went to hospital somewhere between two or three o’clock
“Our club doctor was notified and he got discharged this morning.
“Last night he was disorientated when he came off the field, and he showed all the signs of a ‘normal’ concussion, so they put him through the concussion test and observed him – all the stuff that we normally do.
“Then we made sure he was driven home and that he had someone to stay with last night.”
Cameron said that while all concussion injuries were different, the recovery phase was usually pretty similar, as is the care protocol.
“With all players that have suffered a knock to the head, we make sure there’s someone with them that night.
"Because things like knocks to the head and concussion, they don’t all act uniformly in terms of the symptoms they bring about, so it’s important they’ve got someone looking after them.
“This morning he’s just recovering from a concussion – he’s a little bit washed out.”
Coach Terry Wallace said after the loss to the Magpies that Cousins was likely to be given next weekend’s NAB Challenge game in Shepparton off, even before the magnitude of the injury was known.
Cameron said he wasn’t sure how it would affect the former Eagle’s training.
“I don’t know, to be honest, but we’ll take it as it comes, we’ll just see how he comes along.
“We’ll see how it plays out from here.
"We won’t push him, if he shows any signs of it causing him any distress.”
Dream Team watch – Ben Cousins is rated a $364,000 midfielder in Toyota AFL Dream Team 2009.
