West Coast has been pressured to disclaim claims from membership nice, and father of present participant Jake, Chris Waterman, over the dealing with of significant medical points which may imply his son by no means performs AFL once more.
Jake Waterman was left “basically curled up in a ball” in ache in an Adelaide resort room earlier this month, earlier than the membership’s resolution to place him on a airplane again to Perth in the course of the Eagles’ 122-point loss to the Crows.
Waterman’s father Chris claims his son was additionally in poor health earlier than each the losses to Essendon and Collingwood however was advised, “Dad, I’ve got to play – we’ve just got no numbers”.
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“The two games leading in (to the Adelaide trip), he was in hospital just before (the) Essendon (game) … I rang him the Saturday morning of the Collingwood game and he was no good. A reaction to some antibiotics,” he mentioned on SEN WA.
“When I rang him Saturday in Adelaide, he was basically curled up in a ball and I thought ‘OK, it’s got a bit more serious’.
“They text me and said they were sending him home.
“It’s been just over two weeks – it’s been a pretty heavy two weeks for him.”
After spending days in hospital, the place he’s since been recognized with ulcerative colitis – an inflammatory bowel illness – Waterman mentioned his son was probably dealing with a lifetime of medicine.
“It’s just a slow burn – he’s having infusions at the moment. He’s had one round and has his next round this Friday,” he revealed.
“I don’t know where it’s at right now – hopefully he’s on the improve but how long it takes and if it’s a full recovery, we’re still unsure.
“It’s all just a wait and see and hope at the moment.”
When requested: “Are you concerned that he may not be able to play again?”, Waterman replied: “There is that small percentage according to the doctors that that could possibly happen.”
“Whether he lives on medication for the rest of his life or not, we’re still unsure. It’s not cut and clear at the moment,” he revealed.
“It may or may not be incurable. That’s the part we are just getting towards the final stages – potentially surgery.
“We are hoping we don’t get to that, we’re hoping that the infusions will settle the inflammation down and he may just have to do infusions for a few more years until it gets back to normal.”
Waterman mentioned it was a “pretty hard” 4 or 5 days after his son was placed on the flight again to Perth, after which taken to hospital.
“He was really sick,” he mentioned.
And Waterman was important of the membership’s observe up in the direction of his son, claiming nobody reached out till the Monday evening – 48 hours after he was placed on the flight residence.
“The club’s got a lot going on obviously … Sending him home from Adelaide on a plane pretty crook to find out he’s in hospital on Monday night (was) the first time they contacted me,” he mentioned.
“A bit disappointing – you would have thought they’d reached out and just checked on him.
“But since then, they now know it’s pretty serious.”
But Eagles footy boss Gavin Bell has denied claims the membership didn’t attain out to Jake within the days after his flight residence.
“It was decided during the (Adelaide) game that the best thing for Jake was to get him home so we did that with the medical advice,” he mentioned.
“Before we left Adelaide, I contacted Jake to make sure he got back fine and received a message that he was back and OK.
“During the course of Sunday, our club doctor made contact with Jake on numerous occasions just to check in and make sure he’s doing OK. In the afternoon, his condition deteriorated a little bit so we got him into a sports GP clinic where he went and there was consequent follow up from there.
“On Monday when our club doctor checked in again, Jake’s condition had deteriorated. The decision was made to contact the specialist in the area.
“From those conversations, we were able to admit Jake straight into hospital and receive the care that he needed.
“In that period of time, including myself we made contact with Jake just to make sure that he was OK, if there was anything he needed; he was pretty unwell at that time too.”
Waterman stays listed as a TBC on the Eagles’ harm listing.
But his dad mentioned “obviously” Waterman wouldn’t be returning to the AFL this 12 months; as a substitute remaining hopeful of a constructive prognosis – and his profession extending.
“More often than not, you can get back to a normal life so that’s hopefully where we’re heading to,” he mentioned.
“(West Coast) have got to do what they can do and act on it – make sure they keep their eye on him if they want him on the list.
“He’s a 25-year-old coming out of contract so you’d be putting some time into him you would have thought.”
It hasn’t been an excellent 12 months on the harm entrance within the Waterman family with Jake’s brother Alec – the previous Bomber delisted on the finish of 2022 – out for the WAFL season with a fractured sternum.
Originally revealed as ‘Dad I’ve bought to play’: Eagles deny nice’s worrying medical claims as son ‘may not play again’
Source: www.news.com.au
