Footy legend Brendan Fevola has opened up about the brutal injury that saw him taken to the emergency room after starring in his park footy team’s grand final over the weekend.
The former Carlton and Brisbane forward laced up the boots in the Diamond Valley 35s decider, booting five goals in his team’s dominant 70-point win over Williamstown.
However, the victory took a toll on the AFL great.
‘I did run the gauntlet because during the week I had a mole cut out,’ he revealed on breakfast show, The Fox’s Fifi, Fev & Nick.
‘It was a bad one. They got it all. I had eight stitches in my back and the doctor said I wasn’t allowed to do any sport.
‘I didn’t tell her I was playing in the Grand Final on Sunday, so I thought I’d run the gauntlet. And yeah, I had a bit of a sore back throughout the game.
‘I go, oh, I’ll have a quick shower, so I got all my footy stuff out of the bag and I go, oh God, my backs a bit sore! I pulled out my jumper and on my ‘5’ the top half of the 5 was just all blood. I go, oh, is this (blood)?
‘I got in the shower and ripped it off… I looked in the mirror and there’s a massive, big hole in my back.
Brendan Fevola was taken to the emergency room after starring in his park footy team’s grand final over the weekend
Fevola’s stitches had opened up during the match – requiring him to go back to hospital
‘I go, “ARGH! I’ve got a hole in my back,” and they’re (Fev’s family) like, “Don’t go in the shower, you need to go to emergency straight away, it’ll get infected,” and I’m like, “Can I just wait for my Uber Eats to come? Cause I’m hungry”…. Alex is like, “Go to Emergency! It’s open … you can’t have (your back) open.”‘
‘I went to the hospital, and the doctor told me it’d be a five-hour wait. She said, ‘Come back tomorrow or after your show if you want, or you can sit and wait.’
‘So, I waited, and I finally got out at 11:30 pm. But I’m here, and I’m up and about.
Despite the blood, the pain and the hospital visit, Fevola said ‘it was worth it.’
Fevola had a chequered AFL career, debuting in 1999 for Carlton and playing 204 first-grade matches, kicking 623 goals.
While he dominated in reserve grade in 1999 – kicking 42 goals – before making his AFL debut in the No.25 guernsey made famous by Carlton legend Alex Jesaulenko, Fevola struggled to translate that form to the top grade.
A string of poor matches, poor body language on the field and a number of off-field incidents had senior coach Wayne Brittain ready to trade or delist Fevola at the end of the 2002 season.
Despite the ordeal, the footy legend says the gruesome wound was totally worth it
It was lucky for the Blues he didn’t, as Fevola suddenly found a rich vein of form that led to him becoming a seven-time leading goalkicker for the club from 2003-09, a two-time Coleman Medal winner in 2006 and 2009 and a three-time All Australian.
Off-field issues continued to plague the key forward, though, culminating in him infamously selling his second Coleman Medal to fund his gambling addiction.
It led Carlton to make the shock call to trade him to the Brisbane Lions in 2009.
Fevola would only play 17 matches for his new team in 2010, spending time in a Brisbane mental health clinic and struggling to address his demons.
Spat out of the AFL system at the end of the 2010 season, Fevola would continue playing in lower divisions around the country, including Victoria and Tasmania.
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