The off season has been much quieter than normal for me. If you haven’t already heard, doctors found blood clots on both my lungs after a routine shoulder operation. I don’t want to go into the detail again but to put it bluntly, it was pretty serious.
Rest and time with my family has been most important for my recovery and I cherish every moment I have with them.
We spent a week in Queensland and it was fantastic to get away. My daughter Laudate loved the theme parks on the Gold Coast and seeing her smile like that made me so happy.
Until I start training again I’m just enjoying being with them and making up for the quality time we miss out on during the season. As you can imagine, things get pretty hectic throughout the year when we are training hard and I have to be at the club for the majority of our time.
With my shoulder healing it won’t be long until I’ll be able to get back to Aegis Park and begin rehab, although I know it will be a slow and painful process.
I spoke to our physio Steve Saunders yesterday and I will start a training program from the 16th of October which will include really light exercises, bike, walking and some core work. I just need to do everything right and take it slowly. That’s going to be really tough because I was able to have a full, uninterrupted pre-season this year which enabled me to play some good footy.
My shoulder is still pretty fragile at the moment and I won’t be able to start running until that’s better. I can say that I feel heaps better since being on the blood thinning medication Warfarin.
My wife Ria makes sure I take it every day, she’s like my nurse and I haven’t felt any side affects whatsoever.
With a condition like this, you should probably be more careful around the home and other places but I can’t say I’ve been overly cautious. I have to remind myself all the time about what I went through but when I see something sharp, it does cross my mind that I need to be careful not to cut myself.
I suppose when I look back, the shoulder surgery I had to have was probably a blessing in disguise. It slowed me down and I’m now able to take the time out I need.
I’ve thought a lot about not being able to have any contact until close to the start of the season and while it’s a setback, I’m confident that I will be able to handle it and still play close to my best. My fitness won’t be an issue, it will just be adapting to the bumps and bruises you get along the way.
Finally, I’d like to thank all of our awesome supporters for their well wishes over the past month. The media team printed all of your letters and get well notes from the website and hand-delivered them to me at home - it gave me a massive pump-up and I was truly touched.
