Roosters great Ian Schubert opens up on the incredible battle to save his left foot from amputation

Roosters great Ian Schubert received a phone call last week that changed everything. After a long, painful fight, he won’t need to rearrange is beloved Harley to ride with a plastic foot.

Ian Schubert is back riding in the Hogs For The Homeless. Pic: NSWRL Digital

Ian Schubert was told only last week that nobody is taking his left foot.

“Which was nice to hear,” he grins.

Timely, too.

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Ian Schubert is back riding in the Hogs For The Homeless. Pic: NSWRL Digital

Especially when you consider how in the days since, this 1975 Roosters premiership hero — or more recently, NRL salary cap auditor who brought down a cheating Melbourne Storm — has celebrated by riding his Harley-Davidson some 3500km, and counting, as part of Brad Fittler’s annual Hogs for the Homeless tour.

Indeed, for all nine incarnations of this famed charity run, Schuey has led the pack.

Which he will hate us for writing.

Yet while Fittler is undeniably the heartbeat of Hogs, it’s his great mate, and fellow Roosters Old Boy, who quietly provides the muscle — not simply planning the routes, stopovers or leading the daily convoy of bikes, cars and mini buses, but along with some dozen other anonymous riders, all of them his mates, ensuring the little jobs get done.

So while Freddy provides every kid he meets with a brand new footy, for example, it’s Schuey who ensures they’re pumped up.

Yet still this time a week back, there was no guarantee the 64-year-old would be riding anymore.

With anyone.

Or at least not with his left leg intact.

Brad Fittler and Ian Schubert have been the inspiration for Hogs for the Homeless tour.

“So I was trying to work out how I’d rearrange the bike,” he says.

“So I could ride with a plastic foot.”

For 18 months now, this has been life for Schubert.

With some of Australia’s best surgeons putting him through four major operations — or more than a full 24 under the knife — to save a left foot that was left hanging off, thanks to three severed arteries, during a horrific 2019 motorcycle accident.

Riding through Randwick on Fathers Day, Schubert collided with a car reversing out of a driveway.

Rushed to St Vincent’s Hospital, he underwent two surgeries and remained hospitalised for a month as surgeons fought to save his foot.

But still, there were doubts.

Schubert recovers at home after the accident.

Then, two more surgeries on a bone that refused to heal.

“Initially, it could’ve gone either way,” Schubert says of amputation.

“The bone surgeon didn’t think the foot could be saved but, because the plastic surgeon wanted a go, he said ‘OK, if you want to have a crack I’ll put the bone back together’.”

Which is how Schubert wound up with two rods inserted into his ankle, a skin graft, plus muscles and nerves removed from various parts of his body and attached to his left leg.

“But the bone wasn’t healing,” he continues.

“It was so traumatised during the accident, they weren’t sure it would grow back.

“So then they took all the metal out and cut half an inch off the bottom bone and a half inch off the top — then jammed them together to make a clean break.”

Then, more metal went in.

Schubert is taken to hospital after the accident. Pic: 9 NEWS

Which left Schubert with nothing to do but wait — and hope.

“Because this was it,” he concedes of surgery number four. “My last go at it.”

Which had him thinking what?

“I didn’t dwell too much on it,” he insists. “Plus I had incredible doctors.”

Which brings us full circle to last week, and that phone call.

“Yeah, they’ve told me I’m not losing the foot,” Schubert says.

“There’s been 80 per cent growth (in the bone), which will now finish off over another 12 months.”

All of which puts Schuey, once more, out front on his Harley.

Schubert played seven seasons with the Roosters in the 1970s and 80s.

That, and also working quietly in the background of this wonderfully important charity run which, thanks also to a dedicated NSWRL staff, allows Freddy to continue spreading that magic dust of his right across regional NSW.

Which doesn’t mean Schuey is without issues.

“Have a bit of a limp,” he says.

“And because I’ve only got one artery in my left foot — which they took from the other leg — I do get some swelling.

“But that’s OK, I just have to elevate it, let the blood drain out.”

And as for riding?

“Easier than walking,” he grins.

Originally published as Roosters great Ian Schubert opens up on the incredible battle to save his left foot from amputation