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Collingwood AFL club will consult with experts about how to manage defender Harry O’Brien’s situation after being contacted by Victorian police over the alleged murder he witnessed.
The Brazilian-born O’Brien revealed on Tuesday that while in Rio de Janeiro in 2011 he heard gunshots and watched a man die and had struggled to come to terms with the experience.
The Magpies don’t have a time-line for his return to football and he will miss their clash with Adelaide at the MCG on Friday night.
Collingwood chief executive Gary Pert said club officials as well as O’Brien’s “support team” would meet later on Thursday.
“Some contact has been made (from police) to the club and that contact has been made on a very respectful basis which is, how appropriate is it for Harry to be dealing with this,” said Pert.
“In a lot of ways that’s going to be determined by Harry’s support team.
“We saw him articulate how emotional this was and Harry certainly needs to be in a mind-set to deal with everything going on. This would be another layer so we’ll be taking expert advice on that.”
O’Brien’s situation came to head late last week after he clashed with coach Nathan Buckley and he has since made a dramatic statement about suffering a “very complicated history” related to issues of sexual abuse, suicide and depression.
Pert said the club had long been aware of O’Brien’s issues and done its best to assist him, offering professional counselling, with Buckley at the forefront.
“We’ve known of issues with Harry for as long as he’s been at the club and they’ve ranged from things that have been easy to manage to scenarios like we’re dealing with at the moment.
“Specialists from internal and external points have all been working on what is the best scenario for Harry and also we have to maintain the team and performance while we’re doing this.
“We can’t close the whole place down while we’re dealing with one individual.”
Pert said O’Brien appeared happier since returning to training this week.
“What I’ve noticed is the change since he’s got back out on the track and in amongst his teammates.
“Every single time I’ve seen him he’s had a big smile on his face.”
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