By David Nagel
Kooweerup star Nathan Voss has begun the long recovery process back to full fitness after the Demons’ number-one gun received a fracture to his lower back in the round seven clash against Tooradin-Dalmore.
It was just a minute into the second quarter on Saturday 24 May when Voss backed into a marking contest after a forward-50 entry from Tooradin-Dalmore player Cooper Bassett.
Also with his eyes on the ball was Seagulls’ leading-forward Andrew Dean, who flew for the mark at pace with this right knee crashing into the Kooweerup defender’s back.
“I’ve been doing the same thing all year, just floating back with the flight, but the kick inside forward 50 was miskicked a bit and I had to sit under it a bit more than usual,” Voss explained.
“The big forward (Dean) put his knee straight through me and I laid down on the ground for a bit and just gathered myself, because I thought it might have been just a good corky.
“I got picked up and said ‘I’ll be right’ to the trainer.
“They kicked a goal just after it happened, so it was a centre stoppage again.
“I just manned my opponent; they won the centre clearance again, and my opponent took off and I tried to go off after him.
“I tried to follow him but I couldn’t move, and that’s when I called out to the trainer and came off.
“As I walking off under the trainers’ arms the pain was unbearable; it was like burning, pinching and needles in my back.
“I lied down because I couldn’t move, they brought the stretcher out and away I went.”
Voss was initially not too concerned about the injury after self-assessing himself while lying on the ground.
“When I got the knock and I laid myself back down, the first thing I checked by myself was that my fingers and toes were moving,” he said.
“They were moving okay, and my thought process was that I should be fine.
“It was a little bit worrying, but the ambulance came, I got the green whistle, and even that didn’t help too much at the time.
“The nerve pain was unbearable, nothing like I’ve ever felt before.”
Voss was taken by ambulance to Dandenong Hospital, where he stayed the night as specialists assessed his injury.
He was diagnosed with a fracture of the L2 vertebrae, with a bruised bowel also causing doctors concern.
“The pain in my back was shocking, but they were more worried about the bowel in the end, because the implications of those sorts of injuries can be bad,” Voss said.
The Demons star utility is currently housebound, walking around with a walker and the reality sinking in that his football season is over.
His partner Emily is working from home to assist him with the initial stages of his recovery process that will be the complete opposite to his energetic presence on the football field.
“The first two weeks is pretty much do nothing; just lay on the couch and rest, and then hopefully after two or three weeks we can start doing some physio,” he said.
“Then after a month, if everything goes well, I’ll be able to walk with no pain.
“Maybe in a month I can go back and do some light duties at work and get the recovery going from there.
“Six weeks is hopefully the point where I can start jogging again, but footy season is pretty much done at this stage.
“From a football perspective it’s disappointing; I had a big pre-season and had some good footy under my belt; this has been a pain that I didn’t need right now.
‘But I’m lucky that if I do the right things I will be back playing next year.
“I’ve never really heard of too many back injuries in footy…and I certainly got a good one.”
