Meg Downie determined to play for Melbourne next season despite brutal bump, hamstring injury

MEG Downie has emerged from one of the toughest weeks of her life unbeaten and determined to pull on the red and blue of Melbourne next AFLW season.

MEG Downie has emerged from one of the toughest weeks of her life unbeaten and determined to pull on the red and blue of Melbourne next AFLW season.

The vision of the Melbourne defender being knocked out by the errant elbow of Magpie Sophie Casey, and the upsetting images of her in a neck brace being stretchered off Ikon Park, have shocked many.

But Downie, who will miss the rest of the season after having surgery on Thursday to fix a ruptured hamstring suffered moments before the head knock, is only just realising the impact the incident had.

“I caught a cab on the way home from the surgeon ... (the driver) was chatting away and he said, ‘Where have you been?’. I said, ‘I’ve been at football’,” Downie told the Sunday Herald Sun.

Meg Downie is stretchered from the field after being knocked out by Magpie Sophie Casey. Picture: Getty

“He said ‘who do you play football for’ and started chatting away and he was like ‘I heard about this girl who got hit in the face on the weekend, I can’t believe how rough it is’. I said, ‘that was actually me’.

“That was the moment I realised this has actually moved quite a lot of people.”

Downie said she was quite emotional after the frightening clash.

“I didn’t see her at all, I just felt a big thud on my face and that’s all I remember,’’ she said. “I woke up on the ground and the doctor was trying to pull my mouthguard out and then he was trying to talk to me.

“I just felt incredibly tired, he was trying to ask me all these questions. I realised I didn’t have any neck pain at the time but I guess when they were putting me in the neck brace it was quite frightening. I couldn’t really see properly, so I didn’t really know too much that was going on.”

Sophie Casey holds her head in her hands after laying the brutal bump. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

She doesn’t hold a grudge against Casey.

“I’ve no doubt it’s something that’s probably shaken her quite a bit,” she said.

“We’ve had a chat and I guess got things out in the open. There’s absolutely no hard feelings.”

Downie said AFLW players would learn better ways of protecting themselves and challenging physically.

“Most of the girls in the AFLW, we’ve gone along a different development path to the boys.

“I started playing when I was eight or nine … (then) there was a gap in my development for football up until when I moved to Melbourne and I started playing again when I was 19.

“That period of time is obviously a key development age where kids can learn a lot about protecting their body. I do see the argument we probably haven’t learnt the fine art of protecting our body or bumping in the right way.”

Originally published as Meg Downie determined to play for Melbourne next season despite brutal bump, hamstring injury