SURGERY STOPS COACH

Demons boss to have heart bypass

PORTARLINGTON coach Pete O’Connor is desperate to return to football and normal life as soon as possible after stepping down temporarily to have heart surgery.

The Demons mentor will undergo a heart bypass on Thursday after tests earlier this year found his angina was brought on because at least three arteries in his heart blocked.

O’Connor (pictured) had previously had chest pain that was cleared of serious concern so thought little of it initially when he started to feel tight before Christmas and blamed the pain on indigestion or overwork.

When he woke one night with chest pain he started to think more of it but waited to see his doctor in the new year. He says now he should have called an ambulance or sought treatment earlier.

“I woke up in the night and all of a sudden this thing came on and I thought, ‘I’m not exerting myself here and I hadn’t eaten for ages’,” he said.

“Once again I didn’t panic but my doctor said I should have. I didn’t call an ambulance because the pain only lasted a few minutes, which is typical of angina so I thought I was OK and I put it off for a bit.

“It’s a typical male response, my wife was more anxious than I was and she said, ‘You should see a doctor’.

“When they ran the tests they showed there were more blockages than we thought and it was a bit more severe. I escaped having a heart attack, so from that perspective I feel like I have kicked a goal really.”

I DIDN’T PANIC BUT MY DOCTOR SAID I SHOULD HAVE.

O’Connor was forced to step down from his post leading Portarlington, with his recovery time pegged at 6-8 weeks. Experienced football head Geoff “Joffa” Miles will fill the breach with support from Demons reserves coach Gary English.

But the former Barwon Heads mentor has no thoughts of giving the game away.

“I am keen to get back and I am keen to get back on the golf course,” O’Connor said. “It’s obviously a bump in the highway but it hasn’t dimmed my enthusiasm at all really.”

Miles said he was happy to do anything he could to support his mate, with the pair sharing a long friendship dating back to their days at Barwon Heads.

“Once he is right to go he will be straight back in the fold, there are no issues there, but it is open heart surgery, it is not a week or two, it is 6-8 weeks recovery,” he said.

“I have been mates with Pete for many a year ... I am very close to him, so I just hope the surgery goes well.”