Whack sets off domino effect to delay surgery
A FREAK injury will mean Newcomb & District star Andrew Webb will play more games for his team as it pushes for a finals berth in GCA3.
Having taken 4-13 with the ball against Guild-Saints, the all-rounder was cruising on 32 when he top-edged a delivery into his left eye.
As he was spearheading a tricky chase of 199, the Dinos captain tried to bat on but could not stop bleeding on the pitch, forcing him to retire hurt.
“It was a medium pacer and I tried to over-hit it a little bit and top-edged it straight into my eye,” Webb said.
“The thing I took out of it was at least I was keeping my eye on the ball and I wasn’t shying away from it.
“We tried to stop the bleeding and managed to stem it a little bit but everything we chucked on it was falling off.
“I reckon we tried about six or seven different things.”
Teammates, opposition players and even his parents tried to prepare makeshift bandages before his fiancee, Elysha, managed to slow the bleeding.
Undeterred and running on adrenaline, Webb returned to the crease to resume his chase and, with a teammate acting as the square leg umpire providing a towel to mop up any blood, he proceeded to belt 91 not out and steer the Dinos home.
The heroic Dino went to hospital after the match and, after being frustrated by the waiting room, went home for the night before having two stitches on Sunday morning.
“I wasn’t really thinking about it; we were in a bit of strife having lost two early (wickets) and I thought I was going to miss a few weeks with the surgery, so I was hungry to do well,” he said.
The surgery Webb was preparing for was a routine operation on two veins in his groin that was scheduled for Friday and would have left him sidelined for two to four weeks.
After his head knock, Webb suffered mild headaches, and a bump to the head on his worksite as a carpenter, meant his surgery was pushed back to April or May as a precaution.
The affable all-rounder saw his injury as a blessing in disguise.
“It’s not too bad considering it looked bad, the concerning thing was the dull headache and when I hit my head at work on Tuesday I felt a bit dizzy, but I feel all good now,” he said.
“There is a bit of irony in it all that I get injured and actually gain games.”
Webb declared himself fit and has been named for a crunch clash with ladderleader Geelong West on Saturday.