AFL list changes: Daniel Venables retires after concussion issues

A West Coast Eagle premiership player has called time on his career on medical advice.

Premiership Eagle Daniel Venables has detailed the “scary” symptoms he has suffered and how he felt like his head was “going to explode” after experiencing the brain trauma which has brought his AFL career to a premature end.

Calling time on his career at the age of just 22 after an AFL medical panel told him he should avoid contact sport, Venables revealed not a day had gone by since copping a head knock in a marking contest in 2019 in which he had felt like “myself”.

Venables, who played just 21 games for the Eagles before the on-field incident cruelled his young career, said he had suffered day-long headaches, sleeplessness and pressure in his head that felt like it would “explode”.

“It’s been rough. It’s something where I thought I was just going to come good any day now and that’s from the day after I got knocked out,” Venables said on AFL 360.

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Daniel Venables is stretchered off the field by medics after a head collision. Picture: Richard Wainwright

“Then I just had migraines, no sleep, headaches 24/7, pressure through my head, it felt like my head was legit going to explode at that stage.

“Everything compounded on each other and I think the fact that I just didn’t know - and I still don’t know - when I’m going to come back to being normal is the most frustrating and hardest part.

“There are days where my head has just been thumping so much and (there’s) been no sleep and stuck in a migraine where I genuinely believed that this was going to be me for the rest of my life and that was pretty scary to be honest.

“But that was at the start of it all … things have gotten better which is good.”

Venables said it had been confronting being told by an AFL medical panel he should no longer play contact sport but also a relief that he had an answer about his future.

“It was pretty confronting to be honest with you,” Venables said.

West Coast's Daniel Venables celebrates the 2018 grand final win. Picture: Mark Stewart

“There were three neurologists and a sports doctor that focuses on concussions and at the end of the meeting they just said it was a pretty unanimous decision that you need to retire.

“I kind of knew that going in to be honest but it’s tough.”

Still battling lingering symptoms, Venables remained unsure what his long-term health prognosis would be.

“To be honest, I’m not sure. There hasn’t been a day since the incident where I have felt myself and I still have these lingering symptoms,” Venables said.

“I’m a lot better than I was, that’s for sure and I just pray to god that I do come good and I do rehab every single day, twice a day to get rid of my symptoms.”

Originally published as AFL list changes: Daniel Venables retires after concussion issues