AFL player left in pain so agonising he visited injecting rooms and considered ending it all

A former West Coast Eagles footballer has opened up about his confronting life after he was forced into premature retirement – including the moment he visited a drug injection room and later contemplated suicide.

Patrick Bines was drafted into the AFL in 2018 on a Category B rookie contract after previously excelling at basketball, representing Australia at the under-17 World Championships in Spain two years earlier.

While cutting his teeth in the second-tier WAFL competition, Bines – now 22 – copped a seemingly innocuous knock to his neck mid-match in 2019.

The next day he couldn’t get out of bed and his life plunged into chaos.

Bines enlisted the help of physiotherapists, neck specialists, had repeated cortisone injections – and even ketamine infusions, which are usually given to horses.

Whatever he tried, the pain was relentless and wouldn’t go away.

Bines then resorted to the strongest of painkillers available from pharmacies, Palexia IR, which was ‘a nightmare.’

With his injuries ongoing, Patrick Bines considered suicide and also found himself injecting drugs to numb the pain

‘My dose was four times the regular adult dose. So it was eight or nine tablets when the regular dose was two,’ he recalled.

‘There was a stage where I was spending 22 hours in my room laying down unable to move.’

Desperate for a permanent pain remedy, Bines was prescribed medical marijuana and at his lowest ebb, visited an injecting room in the inner-city Melbourne suburb of Richmond.

‘I am not a drug user. I hate drugs,’ he told the Herald Sun.

‘You buy your own things (drugs) off the street. I was there getting morphine for my neck. I would go 40 hours without sleeping because I was in so much pain and I was going crazy. I was having morphine and even that wouldn’t take the pain away.’

With suicidal thoughts creeping in, Bines spoke to Voluntary Assisted Dying Victoria, feeling his quality of life was rapidly diminishing. 

Before he was handed a rookie AFL contract, Patrick Bines represented Australia in youth basketball at the under-17 World Championships

Bines (pictured in 2018, training with West Coast) believes the AFL needs to introduce a form of workers’ compensation if players see their careers cut short

He held the view that ending his life with dignity and on his terms was a better option than his parents finding the once star athlete dead in a room from a drug overdose.

Thankfully, Bines’ mental health has improved significantly in recent years thanks to his therapist and psychologist, and long term he yearns to return to the workforce in some capacity.

He is also adamant the AFL needs to introduce a form of workers’ compensation, with one serious injury like what Bines suffered potentially a game changer.

‘I haven’t worked since my last paycheck in 2019. Every day is different,’ Bines said.

‘I have good days and I have horrible days. When I wake up I don’t know which one it’s going to be.

‘Which employer will hire someone when there are days you won’t be able to work? So I take it day by day.’