Sydney Swans defender Paddy McCartin’s career hangs by a thread and his 2023 AFL season is over.
In an official statement released on Tuesday, the Swans confirmed the sad news that McCartin had been ruled out for the rest of the season, but were yet to give up on his career.
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“McCartin has been making progress in his recovery and commenced some light exercise (but) he is still experiencing mild symptoms and is yet to make a full recovery,” the statement said.
“The club has transferred the key defender to the club’s inactive list as he continues to focus on his overall recovery.”
The club’s football manager Charlie Gardiner said McCartin and the club came to the decision together.
“In discussions with Paddy, our medical team and external specialists, we all felt the decision to sit out the remainder of the season was the right one to allow Paddy to focus on making a successful return to full health,” Gardiner said.
“We have adopted a very cautious approach to Paddy’s recovery timeline to this point and while Paddy has made progress – he has resumed some light exercise and is involved day-to-day at the club – he continues to experience some mild symptoms and his focus remains centred around becoming symptom free.”
The former No.1 draft pick was concussed for a 10th time against Port Adelaide on April 8, when he required assistance walking from the field after his head made contact with the SCG turf.
Most concerning about the incident was that he was so heavily shaken despite the lack of force with which his head appeared to hit the ground.
The 27-year-old had suffered nine previous concussions, including eight at St Kilda which put his career on hiatus in 2019, before making a brilliant return at Sydney last season.
Earlier, Swans coach John Longmire said symptoms from his most distressing concussion yet were starting to pass, but insisted the club wasn’t putting any timeline on the luckless defender’s recovery.
Longmire said in April that football had become secondary in McCartin’s recovery.
“It’s got nothing to do with the timeline, it’s got everything to do (with) his health and returning to making sure that he’s feeling really good,” Longmire said.
“Football’s very much not discussed in what we’re talking about with Paddy at the moment, it’s just making sure that he gets back to full health as soon as he can
“While some people outside might want to know timelines, it’s best not to talk about that.
“We’ve had some advice that you need to just focus on getting Paddy back and feeling good and that’s the only thing that we’ll discuss and keep focusing on.”
His symptoms have cleared enough to the point that he has been at the club and has travelled with the team.
“Paddy’s in at training every day. He’s not doing any training as such but he’s been in here every day,” Longmire said.
“We’ve been catching up and chatting and just a matter of making sure that he’s OK, sitting down with him and hopefully starting to feel better day by day, which he is, and that’s the main part that we’re mindful of.
“They’re (the symptoms are) starting to (pass), certainly improving all the time. He was certainly a lot better today than what he was four or five days ago
“He’s starting to feel better about himself, he was in the meetings today and getting around the place and had a smile on his face and really looking forward to being a part of the boys and enjoying being around the club, which is terrific.”