I wonder if it’s in anyway related to the repeated Covid infections he got smashed with in his second year.
He was an absolute gun as an 18yo before those.
If he’s experiencing brain fog / persistent headaches / etc it could also be virus related.
Anyway, fingers crosses the medical team can work it out but health over footy every time.
He’ll be medically retired.
The first concussion was the one where he hit himself in the head right?
Even that incident, while not insignificant , was incredibly minor compared to what alot of combat athletes face every day in their gyms.
Some peoples bodies are just not made for intense physical sport (I have a birth defect in my knees that basically stopped me ever making it far with footy so I know). Unfortunately I think Nic is one of those people.
He’s a senior player now. Not turning up is what they do best.
Possibly best to read the rest of the thread before adding such a comment?
Feel for the lad, but the risks of going on may well be too great.
It was a pot shot at our senior players. I hope he’s ok and lives a long healthy and happy life.
I certainly can’t think of any Australian athletes.
Sidney Crosby perhaps
Damn, sad news indeed.
I might be one of the few that still held hope for him, thought he showed some promising signs in the VFL upon return.
If I was his parent, I sure wouldn’t want him playing again. I don’t care how long a lay off he has or how symptom free he might be. It’s a collision sport, and any future significant headknock is not good for someone like him. No way he should be playing any collision sport from now on.
It’s going to be a tough decision to give up on a dream but I really hope for the sake of his long term health that he retires now. Perhaps look at umpiring or coaching or just rule a line and move on from football.
Out of interest, what are the symptoms you are experiencing?
Right now, a solid 4 months after last head hit, I’ve now mostly lost the headaches.
I still have some sound sensitivity. So loud noises can trigger me to the point of immediate killer headaches, irritability, and inability to think/process information properly. The threshold for this has increased over the last month or so which is good but it’s still there.
I’m still not really able to multitask at an okay level (used to be a go at 100%
High performing person prior to this) . My short term memory is starting to come back slowly, but I still need to live by a pen and paper todo list that’s in sight otherwise I get hyper focused on something else and end up doing nothing. If you talk for more than a sentence or two, I’ll still struggle to pay attention long enough to what you said at the start of it.
Fatigue is a big one, I still can’t get through a full day of basic things. So if I do anything physically demanding or quite strenuous mentally then I tire out quickly and will need to rest for awhile.
I tried doing an upper body workout a few weeks back and it was too much too soon and set me back several weeks and brought back some previous symptoms that had decreased which was annoying but to be expected.
The worst of all, under any stress or time pressure, still struggle to process anything properly. Brain shuts down completely.
These are the residual symptoms. Plenty more over the first few months. Balance issues, dizziness, clumsiness, inability to talk full sentences that made sense, see thing do thing attention span. Yep it’s been fun…
7 news just reporting that he has to face the concussion panel.
It’s not fun mate. I’m having similar symptoms still after being knocked out at work in 2021. Especially the memory loss fatigue etc. I hope it clears for you
Same thing with McGovern
Wtf is the afl concussion panel? How would they know more than his own or the club’s doctor about his specific case?
In any event, it should be irrelevant. He should retire, right now . There is no way he comes good sufficiently to have an afl career.
Concussion panel is the one that retired Brayshaw and Murphy (I think? From the Pies)
Gladiators of old used to get eaten by lions. Why don’t we just shut the sport down and reimagine it as the Australia Knitting League. We can spend our Friday nights watching Zach Merrett knit jumpers for the underprivileged.
Well that’s a well considered post.