Mihocek’s immediate fear moments after “seismic injury”

Brody Mihocek feared he’d never walk again in the moments after the horrible incident that left him with a fractured neck.

The Melbourne forward’s head hit the MCG turf in a tackle involving his former Collingwood teammate Billy Frampton on King’s Birthday just over two weeks ago.

As he lay listless on the ground, Mihocek admits he did fear the absolute worst.

“To think of what could have been, I'm pretty thankful to just be up and walking and talking,” he said in an interview on Melbourne’s website.

“I heard a massive crack when I hit the ground and lost feeling in most of my body. The worry kicked in there.

“I remember yelling out and saying I needed some help. It was pretty scary the initial couple of minutes.

“When the feeling wasn't there, obviously your thoughts go to – 'I'm not going to be able to walk for the rest of my life’.

“I think I played out scenarios in my head pretty quickly of what life would be like, and what life would be like with a family as well.

“It's funny how quickly you can think of things in those moments, but on the day everyone was pretty calm, and I think I tried to stay calm as well for everyone around me.

“It would have been pretty traumatising for a few. I think I held myself together pretty well though.”

Sam Edmund, Gerard Healy and Ken Hinkley discussed both the Mihocek injury and his interview on SEN’s Sportsday on Wednesday night.

Edmund suggests it was one of the more scary incidents we’ve witnessed on an AFL ground in recent times.

“Thankfully it looks like it’s going to have a reasonably happy ending but it was certainly one of the more scary incident we’ve seen on a football field for some time,” he said.

“He’s now at a stage where he can talk about his injury and his road to recovery.

“He’s in a neck brace for the next six weeks with minimal movement and it could have been so much worse.”

Brownlow Medallist Healy was thankful that Mihocek’s injury was not more serious.

“As much as it’s a really bad story it’s a really good story that we’re not talking about somebody who could be dead or paralysed,” said Healy.

“The game continues to go on and hopefully those who didn’t like rule changes to protect whacking to the head and putting people’s lives at risk, well think again.

“We all, with the grace of God, thank that he is still going to live largely a normal life.”

Former Port Adelaide coach Hinkley was calling the game for SEN on the day and was immediately taken aback by the fact Mihocek barely moved, doubled with Frampton’s reaction.

“It’s a bit scary to still even think about what Brody spoke about, how he instantly had no feeling,” Hinkley added.

“I was calling the game live for AFL Nation and I knew straight away that this was a really bad moment.

“I could see the behaviour of Brody, who lay motionless, and then Billy Frampton. You could see in Billy’s own mind and eyes that he was terrified with what was happening in front of him. No player would want to be part of an unfortunate action.

“But I’m so glad and happy that we have a positive outcome and we get to talk about Brody.

“You heard him talk about the mental demons, that’s going to be a big injury for him to overcome.”

Edmund said further: “It’s clearly a season-ending injury, that much is obvious.

“But there was no question there about what happens next, no discussion about what happens next. Maybe there’s no thought at the moment about what happens next.

“It’s just about getting back to a quality of life where you can live normally again and who knows what happens after that.

“That’s a seismic injury to overcome. Then there’s got to be a want to go back out there, mentally as much as anything.”