Retiring Adelaide legend Rory Sloane joined the Rush Hour with Bernie, Blewey & Jars tonight and explained why he couldn’t have worn Mason Cox style goggles in order to play on.
RORY SLOANE EXPLAINS WHY GOGGLES COULDN’T HAVE HELPED HIM PLAY ON:
(From 4:30)
“I’ve had two detached retinas, I’ve had a fractured eye-socket, I’ve had tears in the retina, I’ve had stitches in the eye,” Sloane said when asked about the possibility of goggles.
“I’ve dodged a few bullets and managed to keep my vision… so I was gonna try the goggles, I was gonna try to find a way to play with minimal risk towards the eyes.
“But unfortunately with retinal tears and detachments, goggles don’t help it, and they occur from whacks in the head and collision, that sort of impact to the head.
“Unfortunately they weren’t gonna help, it was probably just gonna be more of a make me feel good, I suppose, running out there.
“You do lose a bit of peripherals and it would have been pretty tough around the contest and stoppages in particular to play in them.”
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Sloane also spoke about the timeline of his decision to retire, explaining that he wanted to push through but couldn’t bring himself to take the risk.
“I certainly felt like I was probably almost there a couple of months ago,” Sloane said when asked when he’d made the call to pull the pin.
“But I thought I hadn’t given it enough of a chance, and me being the person I am I was like ‘there’s another way around this, I can push through this’, and find a way to play with a bit lower risk to the eye and retina in particular.
“[However] the closer I got to playing the risk was still there.
“I couldn’t quite get to a point where I’m like ‘I’m comfortable to go back out and risk losing eyesight over games of football’, and that’s honestly where it got to and probably what I’d be doing.
“So [I’d be] ignoring some advice from medical professionals, and I do like seeing stuff… I’ve got a life to live and there’s a lot of stuff I wanna see and do still.
“So it’s not ideal — pardon the pun — and not the way I really wanted to go out, but no one really goes out how they want to anyway, do they?”
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Sloane also discussed the highlights of his time at the Crows, what he prides himself on from his career, and his plans for the immediate future.
Catch the full chat on the LiSTNR app or here:
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