AFL to probe Jack attack
POLICE believe Geelong Cats recruit Jack Steven was attacked by somebody who knows him in an incident that left him with a stab wound.
The former St Kilda star took an Uber to Cabrini Hospital in Malvern about 1am on Sunday and was transferred to The Alfred hospital with a wound in his right thoracic, which is part of his chest.
It is understood the incident did not involve selfharm or a random attack.
The AFL’s integrity team will seek to speak to the midfielder, who has been unwilling to help detectives get to the bottom of what happened.
POLICE believe Jack Steven was attacked by somebody who knows him in an incident that left him with a stab wound.
The former St Kilda star took an Uber to Cabrini Hospital in Malvern about 1am on Sunday morning and was transferred to the Alfred Hospital with a wound in his right thoracic, which is part of his chest.
It is understood the incident did not involve self-harm or a random attack.
Steven did not require any surgery and is recovering from the injury and has the support of his concerned teammates.
But Steven has been unwilling to help Stonnington crime investigation unit detectives get to the bottom of what happened.
The AFL’s integrity team will seek to speak to the midfielder about the circumstances of the incident.
Steven’s parents visited the midfielder in hospital yesterday.
Geelong held a meeting with its players on Sunday to brief them on the latest about their teammate before they returned to the club in groups yesterday to restart training.
Geelong general manager of football Simon Lloyd said the club’s medical team had spoken with trauma doctors at The Alfred. Lloyd described Steven as “lucky” the wound wasn’t more serious.
“Obviously it’s being investigated by the police at the moment so we’ve got to be careful not to speculate and make assumptions so we will allow the police to do all their investigations and really at the moment the focus is on health and support for Jack,” Lloyd said.
“We met with the players yesterday via online and we spoke to the playing group around what the program looks like today.
“The first thing we spoke about to the playing group was Jack’s situation and Jack knows he is well supported by the playing group. The playing group have got a lot of trust that we have got it in hand, that he’s getting all the support he requires physically at the hospital but also mentally. (The players) really care about Jack, he is a popular member of this football club.”
A calf complaint suffered late in pre-season on led to Steven missing a chance hance to make his club debut in n Round 1 but he was back to full ull fitness during the COVID-19 shutdown. The Cats will give him space ace to recover physically and mentally before planning his return to o the club.
He has been n in regular communication with the club in the past 24 hours. urs.
Steven took time ime out of the game in 2019 to deal with his mental health h and was thrilled to be traded aded from St Kilda to Geelong g to be closer to his family in Lorne.
His partner and child live in Melbourne.