Melbourne teacher receiving end-of-life care after horror head clash during suburban football game | Australian rules football
A football player from suburban Melbourne is receiving “end-of-life” treatment in hospital after a horrific clash of heads fell to the ground and hit his head on an indoor cricket pitch, his club said.
High school teacher Nathan Fitzgerald, 27, was taken to Royal Melbourne hospital after the incident at an Australian rules football match in Lalor, north of Melbourne, on Saturday.
According to his club’s chairman, Fitzgerald was playing for Epping and collided head-on with another player during a challenge, following which he received a second blow to the head; this impact “may have been caused by a swinging cleat or knee”.
“Then she hit her head on the ground,” Epping football netball club president Luke De Vincentis told ABC Radio Melbourne on Monday.
“And [it] The ground was reported to be much harder than at other locations where the cricket pitch runs through the middle of the ground.”
De Vincentis described Fitzgerald as “a gentle soul of a man”, loving and humble.
“He had a smile on his face; his teeth would light up the room from a mile away because he always had a smile on his face. And [he] “I gave everyone time,” he said.
He said the club was still coming to terms with the accident and said on Sunday that Fitzgerald’s condition had worsened overnight and that [he] is currently receiving end-of-life care.”
“We have lost a teammate and a very dear member of the club – but more importantly the Fitzgerald family have lost a son and a brother,” De Vincentis said in a statement on Monday. he said.
De Vincentis called for an investigation into football being played on fields with cricket fields, and noted that the field where Saturday’s incident occurred was closed.
“I think there were always some risks and concerns about cricket pitches on oval football pitches,” he said. “Unfortunately, since we are a local amateur sport, we have to use these facilities for multiple purposes.
“But there is a risk that there is a strip of very hard surface in the middle of the ground where a high-speed, high-contact sport is being played.”
Accordingly AgeA Northern Football Netball League spokesman said referees inspected the pitch before the match.
“There is no suggestion that the incident was anything other than a football accident,” the league said in a statement on Saturday.
With a better understanding of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, interest in headers in football has increased in recent years.
