The things AFL players do that you don't hear about in the main media

[one-eyed]

Like Patto last week visiting a 15-year-old promising Northern Knights footballer in hospital who has been told he can't play footy ever again.


Footballer Damian D'Amore with Richmond Tigers player Adam Pattison. Picture: Steven Crabtree

http://diamond-valley-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/footy-dream-over-for-young-northern-knights-player/

Footy dream over for young Northern Knights player
28 Jan 09 @ 05:55am by Shaun Turton

A PROMISING young footballer has been shattered to learn he can no longer play the game he loves.

Northern Knights under-16 player Damian D’Amore is recovering in St Vincent’s and Mercy Private Hospital after having a malignant tumour removed from his left arm.

Doctors have told the 15-year-old it would be too risky to play contact sport after having 7.54cm of cancerous upper arm bone replaced with a donor’s bone.

Damian, who plays for junior Watsonia club St Damians, said he was devastated that his football career was over.

“When the doctor looked at me and said I wouldn’t be able to play footy again, my head went down and I was just shattered,” Damian said.

The two-time Yarra Junior Football League best and fairest, who has represented Victoria, said the support of friends, family and the Northern Knights had helped him cope with the news.

“It’s not something you would want to happen to anyone,” Damian, of Mill Park, said.

“But when I think about it, the operation has saved my life and life is more important than footy.”

The first signs of trouble appeared last April, when Damian came up sore from a hard knock in a game for St Damians.

“I couldn’t raise my arm above my shoulder,” Damian said.

“Going for a mark was really painful and every time I got bumped it felt like my shoulder was popping out.”

After a check up, ultrasound and visits to an osteopath revealed no obvious injury, Damian played out the season with his arm strapped.

It wasn’t until he was sent to have an MRI scan by the Northern Knights’ club doctor in December that the life-threatening cancer was discovered.

“We found out that had he broken the bone, the cancer would have just spread,” Damian’s mum, Franca D’Amore, said.

With a good prognosis and a visit from Richmond Tiger Adam Pattison last week to lift his spirits, Damian said he would take his recovery one day at a time.