By Peter Ryan
Christian Petracca will miss Melbourne’s best and fairest on October 4 to attend a Red Bull training camp in Austria after his surgeon gave him the green light to increase his heart rate.
The club hierarchy has approved the star midfielder’s request to miss the award count and his teammates support the decision as he works his way back from a life-threatening injury on King’s Birthday. A club spokesperson confirmed permission had been granted.
Christian Petracca is attending a Red Bull training camp in AustriaCredit: Getty Images
The Demons supported the trip despite the unusual timing, believing Petracca deserved the opportunity to train after such a traumatic back half of the season spent recovering from surgery on a punctured lung and lacerated spleen. It will be the third time Petracca has attended the camp.
Petracca stated his commitment to the Demons last month after his dissatisfaction with the club became public, and his teammates admitted they were uncertain why he had taken a break in Noosa during the season to recover.
During a tumultuous post-season period, there was speculation Petracca wanted to be traded despite having five seasons left on his contract after he made it clear he was unhappy with the cultural issues the club had experienced since he became a premiership player in 2021, when he won the Norm Smith Medal in Melbourne’s drought-breaking premiership.
However, he said he was determined to help the club return to finals contention and his absence from the club best and fairest is not an indication of any renewed dissatisfaction with the club, which replaced president Kate Roffey with former player Brad Green.
Petracca told the club’s website time overseas would be beneficial from a physical and mental perspective as he recovered from his injury.
“It’ll be awesome probably from a mental point of view, getting back to that confidence in myself and my body, ready to attack day one of pre-season,” he said.
“For me, it’s just been the most amazing experience, being able to use their facilities and have access to some of the best high-performance people in the world.”
Petracca described the discussions he had with the club and teammates after returning from his break as robust, but said that while they were uncomfortable, they were essential for success.
“I think for me, the conversations I’ve had over the past two or three months with the club have been really healthy,” he said.
“We’ve had really robust discussions. I think that’s awesome.
“Like any workplace or any footy club, you have these conversations throughout the year and you just want to make the environment a really good one that we love coming to work.”
The club’s fitness boss Selwyn Griffith told the club’s website the Demons had consulted closely with Red Bull as they mapped out a program to ensure Petracca made strong progress during his time away, so he returned mentally fresh and in good shape physically.
Petracca said he expected to be ready for round one next season.
“I’m really looking forward to day one of pre-season, especially with my injury and probably prioritising that at the moment and trying to get myself back both mentally and physically to the player and person I was,” he said.
“I want to be able to compete and get back out on the ’G in round one for the fans and be really excited to run back out there.”
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