Essendon star Dylan Shiel says he felt he could return to the field when pulled from the Bombers’ loss to Richmond last Saturday.
The midfielder came off the field in the final quarter due to hamstring tightness, but club medical staff took a precautionary measure to keep him on the sidelines for the remainder of the game after confirming he had not torn a muscle.
Despite admitting he wanted to get back on the park to fight out the game, Shiel says the right decision was made in the heat of the moment.
“It’s pretty interesting for anyone who would want to know how a decision like that is made under pressure, because there’s a game going on and it’s in the battle,” Shiel said on RSN on Thursday morning.
“I came off and said, ‘This is what I’m experiencing’. They asked me if I’d done it, because everyone knows when they’ve done it, but I’ve never done my hamstring before.
“I went down into the doctor’s room and they did a few tests on the physio bed there; things like strength testing and testing the flexibility in my hamstring.
“I guess the decision was hard that night, because I felt like I probably could have gone back out there, because I hadn’t actually torn my hamstring.
“There was a discussion there between me and the doctors about who wanted me to go back out there or not, and it was certainly me who wanted to go back out there, but they were not willing to risk it.
Dylan Shiel was forced to look on as the Bombers mounted a comeback against the Tigers. (Image: AFL Photos)
“The doctor has the final say in any decision on the player on game day, regardless of if the coach wants you to play or not or the player wants to play or not.
“I think that’s actually great, because it prevents a player who is emotionally invested in the game from making the wrong decision.”
The athletic onballer said it can be frustrating being restricted at the club as he takes a cautious approach to his preparation, but he knows patience is the key to his recovery.
“The preference is to try and get as good a sleep as possible, because that’s really the only time the body can heal and recover.
“Put a bit of ice on it after the game, recover, eat, get as good a sleep as I can, go into the club the following day to get checked out by the physios and have more discussions.
“The you go and get a scan to determine what the problem actually is and once you have a scan it’s much easier for the doctors and the physios to see what the problem is and we can act from there.
“For me, it was really lucky that I hadn’t actually done any serious damage, so it’s given me a chance to not miss a game.”
Shiel remains a chance to line up against Carlton at the MCG on Sunday, but he will first need to prove himself on the track during Essendon’s main training session on Thursday.
“I’ll go into the club and test it, see how I go, try to have a bit of a run and see how I’m feeling.
“And then from there you’re making decisions whether you can have a kick, whether you can do some training with the group and, more importantly, how do you pull up from that?
“I’d hope that I’m feeling better running today than what I did two days ago and if I’m not then that’s a sign that maybe I’m unable to get up for the weekend.
“If I can be running and improved from a couple of days ago then I’m actually on track to run even better in a couple of days’ time and hopefully declare myself fit.”
The grudge match against the Blues is set to begin at 3:20pm on Sunday.
