AFL Players’ Association CEO Paul Marsh has clarified that the body’s investigation into the handling of Melbourne midfielder Christian Petracca‘s life-threatening injuries in round 13 was initiated to help the industry improve going forward.
Earlier this week, Marsh announced that the AFLPA would open a new investigation into the club’s response to Petracca’s season-ending injuries after he returned to the field during the match.
Petracca was hospitalised after undergoing surgery to repair four broken ribs, a lacerated spleen and a punctured lung following an incident during the Demons’ 38-point loss to the Pies.
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The internal injuries ended Petracca’s season with potential mismanagement fueling dissatisfaction from the 28-year-old and his family.
As a result, Petracca was reportedly seeking a trade away from the Demons but a move this off-season has since been ruled out.
While the probe into the Demons has been labelled an investigation, Marsh stated that its intention is simply to understand what happened from all parties involved.
“I think maybe I’ll just start with the word investigation. We’re not an investigative body,” Marsh told SEN Breakfast on Wednesday.
“I think that’s been overplayed in terms of the role we might be playing, but in terms of trying to understand what’s happened here … we’ve got a duty to try to make the game as safe as possible for our players and we work in conjunction with the AFL and the clubs on that.
“We’re trying to understand what happened here to Christian and what we can learn from this moving forward, that is really what this is about.
“I think, from our perspective, it’s about gathering the information from all sides, it’s not just hearing it from one side.
“It’s if this were to happen again, what are the lessons and what are the improvements that the industry could make?”
The AFL has already cleared Melbourne of any wrongdoing and is satisfied that everything was handled correctly.
Because of this, Marsh hopes that all involved are forthcoming with information.
“I guess we’ll see how it plays out, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t go down a path of trying to understand what happened,” he said.
“The AFL has obviously come out and said that they’ve cleared Melbourne, we’re trying to understand on what basis that’s the case.
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“We are concerned about how this has played out from a player’s perspective, and I think on face value, we all should be concerned about what nearly happened here.
“What can we learn from this? We’re not baying for blood here.
“What we’re trying to do is understand what happened … we have to learn from these things because it’s a high-risk sport at times.
“I think we’ve got to make sure that the medical support that sits around the players is as good as it can possibly be.”