EMERGING defender Tom McDonald is hopeful he can return for Melbourne’s round 16 clash against Fremantle at Etihad Stadium.
McDonald, who endured a two day return by car from Brisbane to Melbourne after suffering a lung injury against the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba last Sunday, has set his sights on missing just one match.
“I’m still a little bit sore from the incident, but I’m glad to be home, because it’s been a long couple of days on the road,” he told melbournefc.com.au.
“I’ll have a pretty light week. I’ll do a bit of stuff [on Thursday] on the bike and a few leg weights, so not a lot this week.
“There is a chance I could play next week - if not, I should be right to go the week after, if I’m cleared to fly [to Darwin against Port Adelaide in round 17]. Hopefully, it’s this week only, but it could be two weeks.”
McDonald copped an accidental knee from Lion strongman Daniel Merrett in the early stages of the first quarter. The 19 year-old said he felt “very badly winded” after the incident happened.
“The ball came in high and I just tried to reach it with one hand - just to see if I could get a finger tip on it, so they couldn’t mark it,” he said.
“I didn’t know there was a player coming from behind. I was pretty exposed, and I got my arm up and I got a knee in the side.
“It basically felt like I had been badly winded and a couple of boys picked me up and all of a sudden, I felt the urge to cough and I couldn’t stop coughing. I coughed up a bit of blood and I got down into the rooms.”
McDonald was immediately taken to hospital and was forced to miss the team flight on Sunday night.
“The ambulance came as a precaution, in case anything bad had happened,” he said.
“They took me there and had scans and I stayed there for a couple of hours and then I got back to the hotel with [player welfare manager] Craig Lees after that.”
As McDonald was not able to fly due to his injury, different modes of transport were then investigated. Buses and trains were looked into, before he was driven back by Lees early Monday morning.
“It was a bruised lung and there was a chance that if I flew - due to the changes in air pressure - that I could actually collapse or pop the lung completely,” he said.
“That’s why we had to drive in the end. We looked at buses and trains, but it didn’t really work in the timeframe that was reasonable, so it was easier to get a car.
“So we got up on the Monday and left at 7 am, and kept driving until about 6 pm and stayed the night at Dubbo. We got up at 6 am the next morning and drove all the way home, so I got home yesterday (Tuesday) at 4 pm.”
McDonald said he would never complain about another flight in his life.
“If we had to fly to Perth twice in a week, I wouldn’t care, compared to doing that,” he said.
When reflecting upon his week, after he received the round 13 NAB AFL Rising Star nomination, McDonald said he had experienced a range of emotions.
“It’s gone from having a pretty good week to one of the worst ones,” he said.
“It’s the first game of footy I’ll miss in probably four or five years.
“It’s pretty disappointing .... it could’ve been a lot worse with broken ribs and a collapsed lung. So I’m lucky in some senses and unlucky in others.”
McDonald, who endured a two day return by car from Brisbane to Melbourne after suffering a lung injury against the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba last Sunday, has set his sights on missing just one match.
“I’m still a little bit sore from the incident, but I’m glad to be home, because it’s been a long couple of days on the road,” he told melbournefc.com.au.
“I’ll have a pretty light week. I’ll do a bit of stuff [on Thursday] on the bike and a few leg weights, so not a lot this week.
“There is a chance I could play next week - if not, I should be right to go the week after, if I’m cleared to fly [to Darwin against Port Adelaide in round 17]. Hopefully, it’s this week only, but it could be two weeks.”
McDonald copped an accidental knee from Lion strongman Daniel Merrett in the early stages of the first quarter. The 19 year-old said he felt “very badly winded” after the incident happened.
“The ball came in high and I just tried to reach it with one hand - just to see if I could get a finger tip on it, so they couldn’t mark it,” he said.
“I didn’t know there was a player coming from behind. I was pretty exposed, and I got my arm up and I got a knee in the side.
“It basically felt like I had been badly winded and a couple of boys picked me up and all of a sudden, I felt the urge to cough and I couldn’t stop coughing. I coughed up a bit of blood and I got down into the rooms.”
McDonald was immediately taken to hospital and was forced to miss the team flight on Sunday night.
“The ambulance came as a precaution, in case anything bad had happened,” he said.
“They took me there and had scans and I stayed there for a couple of hours and then I got back to the hotel with [player welfare manager] Craig Lees after that.”
As McDonald was not able to fly due to his injury, different modes of transport were then investigated. Buses and trains were looked into, before he was driven back by Lees early Monday morning.
“It was a bruised lung and there was a chance that if I flew - due to the changes in air pressure - that I could actually collapse or pop the lung completely,” he said.
“That’s why we had to drive in the end. We looked at buses and trains, but it didn’t really work in the timeframe that was reasonable, so it was easier to get a car.
“So we got up on the Monday and left at 7 am, and kept driving until about 6 pm and stayed the night at Dubbo. We got up at 6 am the next morning and drove all the way home, so I got home yesterday (Tuesday) at 4 pm.”
McDonald said he would never complain about another flight in his life.
“If we had to fly to Perth twice in a week, I wouldn’t care, compared to doing that,” he said.
When reflecting upon his week, after he received the round 13 NAB AFL Rising Star nomination, McDonald said he had experienced a range of emotions.
“It’s gone from having a pretty good week to one of the worst ones,” he said.
“It’s the first game of footy I’ll miss in probably four or five years.
“It’s pretty disappointing .... it could’ve been a lot worse with broken ribs and a collapsed lung. So I’m lucky in some senses and unlucky in others.”
