MELBOURNE forward Liam Jurrah might be able to caress a football with an ability rarely seen, but juggling his multiple responsibilities in the past few weeks has proved much harder.

Jurrah had returned to his Yuendumu community after the recent death of his partner's sister who, at the age of 25, died in her sleep. To be with family at such a time was a decision anyone would take.

However Jurrah was returning to a much more complex situation than most of us can understand, a community struggling with the issues sparked by a death in 2010 and subsequent court decisions.

These issues had been bubbling along in the past 18 months even as Jurrah has returned many times to his community without obvious disruption to his football career.

Each time he has expressed the need to return he has received support, understanding and empathy from the Melbourne Football Club, as well as trust.

As Melbourne CEO Cameron Schwab said at Friday morning's press conference, the club was always slightly nervous when Jurrah returned to his remote community in Central Australia but they also respected the responsibilities the 23-year-old had within his community and his family. They also knew that when Jurrah returned to Melbourne to play football he was doing so with his family's blessing.

So the club was still hopeful that Jurrah could continue to manage the multiple responsibilities with minimal disruptions until the alleged incident took place on Wednesday night. That turn of events shocked the club who were expecting him to return to Melbourne this weekend.

Now Schwab hopes Jurrah will return to Melbourne with club officials before the end of Friday after facing court in Alice Springs on Friday morning.

"The first thing we [will] do is sit down with him and see where his headspace is at," said Schwab. "He has obviously gone through a very traumatic situation and we need to find out where he sits at that time."

Schwab described the issues surrounding Jurrah's community as complex and challenging. "We try to have as much empathy…like yourselves we're learning as we go as well," he said.

Club officials have visited the community on several occasions since Jurrah joined the club but Schwab was right to point out that the club would never be so presumptuous to claim they fully understand what Jurrah has been working through. "It is something very different to what we have all grown up with and we done our best to have great empathy with it," said Schwab.

Schwab is yet to speak with Jurrah but says the club is throwing its support behind their player to work their way through the ramifications of what has happened this week. "Let's not underestimate the quality of the individual we are talking about, of what he has been able to deal with thus far in terms of playing his career," said Schwab. "Clearly he is in a challenging and difficult place now. Our expectation is that he will continue to manage that and deal with it with the maturity he has shown thus far."

So as the Jurrah story took a sad and unexpected twist, questions about his football future were put to one side. Schwab said the immediate issues Jurrah faces were the club's top priority.

But clearly the football future of the talented 23-year-old who has thrilled crowds and kicked 81 goals in 35 games (including 40 goals in 18 games) is uncertain.

Not only is he likely to face court in Central Australia in the next few months, he has had complications from a wrist injury to work through. In a changing environment at Melbourne, the challenges for a player with so much on his agenda are obvious.

The reality is everyone is learning what is possible in Jurrah's case, and what might be beyond even the most committed individual.

"People often underestimate what a player has to deal with to play AFL football, what we are dealing with here is one who is very much in the public eye," said Schwab. "Every player [playing] that elite standard of the game is required to give of themselves at a maturity level that belies their age. I think what Liam has done to this point has been extraordinary."

Extraordinary is right. We might be about to find out how extraordinary.