Cheap shot leaves player in daze
Kalgoorlie-Boulder footballer Luke Ryan cannot remember much about the incident that left him knocked out at Digger Daws Oval last weekend.
The 32-year-old is still "not quite right" and has headaches after being struck behind the play by opposition player Mitchell Cloughessy, from Kambalda, who was suspended for 20 weeks by a tribunal this week.
The tribunal was told Cloughessy felled Mr Ryan and continued to hit him after he fell to the ground.
"I can't remember but apparently the physio walked me off the ground," Mr Ryan said.
"They did a (sport concussion assessment tool) test and I failed pretty badly. There was blood coming from my ear, so my wife took me to emergency and they kept an eye on me for four hours."
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Mr Ryan, an engineer, said he faced two clearances before he could return to football - one to be allowed to train and a second to play contact sport.
"The doctor said it will probably be two or three weeks before I can think about playing," he said.
"You can never be too careful."
Mr Ryan said he had been playing football since he was in primary school but had never suffered such a serious injury.
