Adelaide Crows veteran Brodie Smith has revealed that his loved ones were left upset after his latest sickening concussion – the fifth of his AFL career.
Smith was knocked out while taking one of the best marks of his career in the third quarter of the Crows’ loss to the Giants at the weekend, with his head thudding into the Adelaide Oval turf upon landing.
The 30-year-old laid motionless for several minutes before he was eventually stretchered off the field and subbed out of the game with concussion, his second in the span of eight months, prompting fears about his future, particularly from his family.
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“They were already concerned before this one – I’ve got a bit of a history now – so they don’t like to think of what could possibly happen in the future,” he told 9News Adelaide.
“My cousins say their little girls were really upset watching me on the floor, so they’re the sort of things that upset you.”
Despite his relatives’ concerns, Smith is adamant about adding to his 211 career games, saying he was showing “really good signs early” while in the concussion protocol with teammate Ned McHenry.
“I’m not going to go there (retirement) in my thinking. I’m just going to focus on what I can do now,” he said.
“Obviously there is some increased risk with the more head knocks you have.”
While he is optimistic about returning to the Crows’ line-up in the near future, the defender admitted he had little recollection of the incident itself.
“I was pretty dazed,” he said.
“I couldn’t really figure out where I was or what was going on, so one of the physios reminded me that I’d taken a mark and I sort of had the flashback of jumping up and that’s all I’ve got.”