I THOUGHT MY CAREER WAS OVER
CAT GREGSON’S EXCLUSIVE COLUMN
I THOUGHT my career could have been over when I was waiting for my MRI last week. I felt a sharp pain in my navicular bone — again — early in our win over St Kilda. My foot got lodged in the ground when I was tackled and the pain was instant. Worst of all, it was in a very similar spot to the navicular bone I’ve injured three times before. When I got up off the ground, I tried to put pressure on it and I could barely do anything. I knew it wasn’t good. Your mind has a tendency to race when you’re laying in the machine during the 45 minutes that it takes to do the scans. What if this is bad? I remember thinking, “Far out, not again, seriously?” It was a low moment. I wasn’t sure how I would be able to cope if the results showed I had re-injured my navicular bone. I’ve obviously got some bad news a number of times before, but this time it was cutting me a little bit deeper. I honestly don’t know how I would have been able to go through a fourth injury to the navicular bone in my foot. Surgery and recovery can take its toll and take so much time. I felt like this one could have broken me, ruined me. The seriousness of the injury didn’t really hit me until I was put on crutches after the game. As soon as I saw them, I became really flat. I guess you can get caught up in watching the game and it’s not until everyone is gone that it all starts to sink in. I was so lucky that a few of the boys — player development manager Dave Johnson, coach Corey Enright, Mark O’Connor, Lincoln McCarthy and VFL player and housemate Dean Gore — popped over that Saturday night.
They all knew I would be feeling pretty down, so it was great to have them over.
We just sat on the couch watching IPL and it really helped take my mind off things.
The morning of the scans I was absolutely s---ting myself. It’s hard not to be scared when you feel like your career could be in the balance.
I got that same nervousness when our club doctor Drew Slimmon’s name popped on my phone screen.
I knew he had seen the results and I knew he was going to deliver me the news.
I waited until it was almost too late to answer before I swiped across to take the call. He didn’t leave me hanging.
“Good news. It’s a mid-foot sprain, like we thought,” came down the line.
That’s all I needed to hear. I was just so relieved.
A day and a bit later and I was off the crutches and on the mend.
Obviously I missed the road trip to South Australia and our good win over Port Adelaide, but I was hopeful of being cleared to play against Sydney today.
It wasn’t until Thursday night that my line coach Enright delivered the news.
I think when you hit low spots mentally you really get a massive enjoyment out of the highs that follow.
Certainly running out against Sydney will be one of those.
The Swans will be without Lance Franklin and Dan Hannebury and that will make life slightly easier.
But Sydney has so many talented players that we can’t take anything for granted.
As a forward group we have to be on our toes, keeping our pressure up because Sydney likes to move the ball quickly from defence.
Slowing the Swans down will be crucial.
It’s going to be a tough match and we know we have to be on song if we want to keep our winning momentum going.