MICHAEL Hibberd’s collarbone was barely intact, but that didn’t prevent him from celebrating Saturday night’s one-point win.
The Melbourne defender copped an almighty hit from Gold Coast’s David Swallow in the first half at Metricon Stadium and required plenty of medication to relieve the pain.
“Once I got into the physio room they put the green whistle on me and they gave me some morphine because the pain started to kick in pretty hard,” Hibberd told Melbourne Media.
“Initially I was probably in a bit of shock and had a bit of adrenaline, so you don’t feel as much pain, but once that kind of wore off I needed to have some drugs and they sent me a little bit loopy.”
Hibberd then returned to the bench to witness the final moments unfold.
“When I was watching the game in the last quarter and saw Tommy (McDonald) hit the post with a second to go I was swinging my arms around and screaming,” he said.
“The docs had to remind me I had a broken collarbone.”
While the pain Hibberd felt was undeniable, he wasn’t entirely sure what he had done at the point of contact.
“I had never broken a bone before, so this was the first time,” he said.
“I knew I had hurt something, but I wasn’t sure what it was. I heard a fair crunch and obviously I got up and tried to move the arm, but it didn’t really want to move, so I knew something was up.”
The 29-year-old didn’t run straight off the ground after sustaining the injury, in fact, his initial response was to find his opponent.
“The ball was still around so if it came near me it might have been dangerous,” Hibberd said.
“I probably would’ve tried to get it, but lucky for me it was over the other side and I was able to run off from there.
“But there was a couple of minutes there where if it bobbled towards me, I probably could’ve copped another hit.”
After undergoing surgery to repair the collarbone on Sunday, Hibberd is now on the mend.
“It’s a little bit sore but it’s better than what it was on Saturday night with three loose bones rattling around in there,” he said.
“It’s a lot more comfortable to get around now – the surgery all went well.
“I’ll speak to the surgeon next week to see how it is and we’ll go from there I think.”
Hibberd’s return date isn’t clear just yet, so the Demon is just focusing on his recovery for the time being.
“I just got out of hospital this morning, so I celebrated by watching Game of Thrones which was pretty intense – it was good,” he said.
