Geelong Advertiser |
IMAGINE you’ve struck your finger flush with a hammer. Now times it by 10. That’s how much pain Brett Venables felt when he shattered his pinky finger in a workplace accident.
“It didn’t tickle,” the Winchelsea star said.
“I certainly did a good job of it.”
Venables, a truck driver, was using a steel bar to tighten a strap when his finger was crushed.
“I used my foot for a bit of extra strength and my foot slipped and the metal flung back and split my finger open,” he said.
“I broke it in two places and there’s a nice little gash. It was touch and go whether I’d lose it.
“I went to the surgeon last Tuesday and he told me to come back in a week because it was pretty swollen.
“It really depends on how it heals. I’m more than confident I will keep it, but there is a chance I could lose it.”
Venables had a wire inserted from the tip of his finger to the knuckle to stabilise the broken bones.
He also had several stitches to sew up the gaping wound.
The 24-year-old will be off work for up to a month and is set to miss another five weeks of football after the incident on April 28.
“The surgeon said I could go back to work on light duties but there’s no light duties at work,” he said.
“I’m hoping to be back playing by Round 10 or 11, that’s best-case scenario.”
Despite the injury setback, Venables said he was enjoying his time at the Blues.
“I love it,” said Venables, who is in his third season at Eastern Reserve after crossing from BFL club Anglesea.
“My first year was pretty tough but all the guys I got along with at Anglesea are now at Winch, so it’s a great club.”
Venables arrived at the Blues in 2012, a year before the club lured former Geelong star David Mensch from the Roos.
And a number of Anglesea stars, including Brody Donald, Simon Bayliss, Kane Bonner and Ben Davis, have followed suit.
Donald was among a host of Blues’ playmakers who were missing from the 63-point defeat to Bell Post Hill on Saturday.
Donald, the club’s leader goalkicker last season, returned in the reserves against the Panthers after being unavailable with work commitments.
Joel Higgins has resumed training after breaking his thumb in Round 1, Daniel Hermans is scheduled to return after the bye as he recovers from a back injury and Davis will miss up to a month with a sore knee.
