Sam Mitchell is back in Melbourne from his US holiday, but not before another potential disaster played out prior to coming home.
Mitchell in December was revealed to be in a New York hospital with a serious bout of pneumonia, taking out seven nights of his family trip.
The Hawthorn coach spoke to 7News upon flying into Tullamarine Airport on Friday.
“I’m feeling okay, I’m feeling better,” Mitchell said.
“The story will come out in due course, probably not ready to quite talk about it yet. But there was a rough few days.”
Mitchell is expected to return to Hawthorn in a limited capacity over the coming week as he eases himself back into full-time work.
SEN Chief Sports Reporter Sam Edmund has also revealed that on top of contracting pneumonia, Mitchell and his family were at the centre of another serious incident just before they flew home.
“We can tell you that this trip got worse before he returned home to Melbourne as well,” Edmund told SEN Breakfast.
“Aside from spending seven nights either side of Christmas Day in hospital in New York with pneumonia which was disastrous… but after leaving New York, the family were in Los Angeles and we can tell you that unbelievably, the Mitchell family had some luggage stolen, what police say might have been a suspected carefully planned robbery, almost a targeted burglary
“Some electronic stuff was taken… but also Sam’s passport was taken as well and maybe a couple of other passports in the family were taken as well.
“This is on the day, I believe, they were due to fly back to Melbourne as well… now the police incredibly were able to get it back on the same day, so when the next piece of bad luck happened, a delayed flight, but in the end the delayed flight helped them because I’m told it was a pretty wild trip to the airport to make the flight by the time they got their passports and all their belongings back from the robbery, so understandably some very stressful moments.”
Mitchell also returns home to the news that star midfielder Will Day is under an injury cloud for the start of the 2024 season after suffering a stress fracture in his foot.
The Hawks are tipped to rise up the ladder this year – Mitchell’s third at the helm – after improving in the back half of the 2023 season to claim the scalps of Brisbane, Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs.