All the injury news and updates from AFL Round 9
Injured Bomber Sam Draper cried more than he ever had before in the days following his season-ending injury, and he has revealed the mental toll he is battling on the road to recovery.
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Injured Essendon ruck Sam Draper has detailed how his brutal Achilles rupture made him cry more than he ever has in his life and left him questioning what caused the season-ending blow.
Draper ruptured his Achilles in his right leg in the final quarter of a tight win over West Coast in round 6.
The big Don believed he was in career-best form as he pushed for a big new contract while playing in the ruck before the injury.
It’s understood talks between the Draper camp and Essendon over a new deal, that had been progressing well before the injury, were put on pause for about a month when the pending free agent went down.
Draper was still in a cast this week and will move to a moon boot soon, while he has to sit in a hospital chair in the shower as part of his slow recovery.
He said the injury had been an emotional battle in its early weeks.
“I don’t reckon I have cried that much in my life over the next few days (post-injury),” he said on his 200 Plus podcast.
“Once the dust settled and I had the surgery, I feel a lot better now. But it’s a weird one, I can’t get stuck into my rehab, I have to let it heal, which is a weird feeling. I’ll be fine once I get back into routine again.”
Draper was convinced someone had trod on his ankle when the Achilles snapped, and he thought he felt stud marks from a football boot as he collapsed.
He confirmed there was no known connection between the injury and a sore calf that saw him in a lengthy discussion with coach Brad Scott and Essendon medicos at three quarter-time of the match, only minutes before the Achilles blow.
“It just didn’t feel fair. Like, I work so hard all off-season, get my body right, have a good pre-season, come into the best form of my career and have such high expectations for the year,” he said.
“It’s my contract year too. And it just gets taken from my like that. It was just a gutting feeling, and seeing the team needing me out there, it is such a hard one to take.
“That’s the thing I have been thinking about, ‘What could I have done differently? Was I sore?’. But it was completely out of my control that one.”
Draper’s family had booked to travel over from South Australia for Anzac Day the week after the injury, but instead of watching the Bomber play in the biggest home-and-away game of the season, they supported him through his grief for the football year.
Originally published as All the injury news and updates from AFL Round 9
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