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Calls come for Riewoldt to consider AFL future

19th May, 2015
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Former Brisbane Lion skipper, Jonathan Brown, suggested on Fox Footy’s On The Couch on Monday night that Nick Riewoldt should consider his future in the AFL following a sickening head-clash with Adelaide’s Brodie Smith on Saturday afternoon.

The incident left Riewoldt and Smith both concussed, but the veteran Saint fared far worse, losing consciousness and needing to be rushed to hospital for scans.

After spending a night in hospital, the 32-year-old was cleared of any structural damage to his head, and was allowed to fly home to Melbourne.

When commenting on the incident, Brown, a man whose career was littered with head and facial injuries, leant on his own experiences as a player to decipher the decision making process that lies ahead for Riewoldt.

“Riewoldt’s actually pulled up pretty well, but the emotions externally are very high at the moment and the emotions internally would be quite high as well, because potentially the family is starting to ask questions.

“As a competitor, I’m sure he wants to keep playing footy. At the time, I was fighting the battle, I didn’t want to retire, but I started to fail my concussion tests and I also started seeing the emotional impact it was having on my family.

“I also knew it was starting to put pressure on the key decision-makers at my footy club and, more importantly, the doctors.

“When you’re really emotional about it and there’s a lot of commentary around it, like we are doing right now, you feel the strain of that.

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“Riewoldt needs to not make an emotional decision. He needs all of the dust to settle, consult his family and think about what he wants going forward.”

Head injuries are in high focus this season after just last week Adelaide’s Brent Reilly was told to ‘never play contact sport again’ after fracturing his skull in a training accident.

Riewoldt had the opportunity to reach the 300-game milestone in 2015 if he was able to play every remaining match of the regular season.

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