As the travelling emergency, Keegan Brooksby flew down to Adelaide with the team on the Friday afternoon before they faced the Crows in Round 17. But when he landed back on the Gold Coast on the Monday morning, he knew something wasn’t quite right. Although he didn’t realise just how serious it was.

The mature-aged rookie had travelled back to his home state of South Australia as a readymade replacement that could step in if required. He wasn’t called upon, instead watching the game from inside the coaches box before spending the remainder of the weekend with his family whilst the team returned to Queensland.
 
On Sunday morning his arm felt foreign. As he dried himself off from a shower he noticed some minor swelling and felt a nagging pain. But with his father being inducted into the South Adelaide Hall of Fame, he pushed the thought to the back of his mind and got on with a day of celebration.
 
By the time he woke up on Monday morning, his arm was throbbing and had swollen immensely. With a flight back to the Gold Coast departing at 8.30am, Brooksby wrestled with uncertainty. Surely he could deal with the problem once he was back in his adopted land, a city he had called home for less than nine months.
 
Once his flight hit the tarmac in Coolangatta, the ruckman knew his arm was far from fine as the swelling and pain had increased in the air. Instead of heading home he drove straight to the club in search of the club doctor. By the time he arrived in Carrara, the club doctor had left for the day due to Monday’s being only a half-day for the players.
 
After getting in contact with the club doctor, Barry Rigby, Brooksby got back in his car and travelled to the emergency department at Pindara Hospital. Thoughts raced through his mind, as they would, given the scenario he found himself in. And the lack of clarity in his head as thoughts whirled around.
 
“I woke up Monday morning ready to come back up to the Coast and my arm was pretty swollen and quite sore. I wasn’t really sure what to do, so I jumped on the plane and basically drove straight to the club. The doctor wasn’t there because I’d missed him – he’d gone off to work at the hospital,” Brooksby told SUNS TV on Thursday.
 
“I spoke to a couple of staff and they got him on the phone and he said don’t panic but drive yourself to emergency. From there I was a bit worried. I got to emergency, sat down and waited for a little bit. I went through a bunch of tests, ultrasounds, x-rays, all that sort of stuff and then was told I had a blood clot in my arm, which was a bit surprising.
 
“I was quite concerned sitting in the emergency by myself, not really knowing what to think. You think a fair bit about what’s going to happen and what the possible outcomes could be.
 
“I didn’t really know too much about blood clots, but I knew they weren’t very good. In some ways it’s a bit of a relief its happened this way because as I’ve been told, it’s been building up for a number of years and it’s been a bit of a time bomb.”
 
Having moved to the Gold Coast from Adelaide at the start of last December, in pursuit of a football dream that isn’t offered to many at 24, Brooksby was forced to go through this traumatic experience without the support of family and close friends around him.
 
In the days following the revelation, his father flew up to spend time with him in his hospital room before setting off on a pre-planned holiday with his mum.
 
“It was a bit confronting, I got off the plane and knew I was in a bit of strife. I had to drive straight to emergency essentially and sit there by myself when you usually have some family to be there to support you,” he said.
 
“I was lucky enough that my Dad was able to fly up for a couple of days while I was sitting in hospital doing not a lot. But then they’ve taken off overseas, which they’d planned for a long time.
 
“In some ways it was good it happened when it did because if they were overseas when it happened I think they would have been on a plane back home pretty quickly.”
 
The road back to football isn’t simple. Brooksby will undergo another bout of surgery in a month’s time to remove a part of his rib that contributed to his blood clot. The aim of the procedure is to clear the path for his blood supply to ensure he never has to endure the experience again.
 
By Christmas he will return to a clean bill of health and if the time was different, he would be fit to play. With only five games remaining in Gold Coast’s season, Brooksby is an advantageous position. Pre-season doesn’t start until mid-November, so he can fully focus on his health without having the lure of fast tracking his time for games lurking in the back of his mind.
 
For now, the SANFL product is confined to a citizen’s life. Football takes a backseat in situations like this, but as a professional athlete he must look ahead. After all, he is a rookie and has only three games of senior football next to his name.
 
“My workload for the next few weeks is very minimal. I’ve got to take injections every 12 hours to keep the blood thin enough to prevent any further clotting,” Brooksby said.
 
“After that’s done, I’ll be able to run, I’ll be able to do some skills, but I won’t be able to have any physical contact essentially.
 
“I won’t be able to do upper body weights for the short term, and after I’ve had my next surgery in roughly about a month it will be the same thing for a short period of time and then just be able to build into pre-season. I won’t miss too much of it.”