Gossip Queen: How Dermie’s paying painful price for tough footy career
Hawthorn footy great Dermott Brereton has undergone his 26th major surgery to ease the constant agony he suffers from footballing injuries. See which body part he had to have removed.
Fiona Byrne
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Hawthorn great Dermott Brereton has had a rib removed in a bid to manage the constant agony he lives with from injuries sustained during his celebrated footy career.
Brereton underwent surgery last month in what was his 26th major surgery related to his footballing days.
The lower floating rib on his left side was removed as part of the procedure to alleviate some of the pain he endures daily.
He is now on the slow and cautious road to recovery, saying he is feeling “not too bad”.
“It is quite invasive but all things being equal I am going OK,” he said of the operation.
“It will take quite some time to recover. I am just letting it mend in its own time.
“In a few weeks I’ll be doing a bit of rehab work with physios and the like.”
He said he had no regrets about his hard-hitting playing style that took a heavy toll on his body during his 214-game, 14-season career that ended in 1995. “I’d probably do it all again,” he said with a laugh.
As for losing the rib, his position was simply if that was the best course of action, then that was what had to be done.
“I expect the doctors to do whatever they think is the absolute best thing for me, that is what you sign the waivers for,” he said.