The Standard | A PLASTER cast stretching from his bicep to wrist conceals Harry Lee’s sickening arm injury.
“I heard a crunch and knew straight away I was in trouble,” the South Warrnambool defender said.
“Just the pain through my arm, I looked down and it (bone) was sticking out to the side.
“There was a bit of adrenalin trying to get Parso (head trainer Alan Parsons) over to me and then I started feeling crook and light-headed. I could see the bone but it wasn’t out of the skin.”
Lee, 18, suffered the injury when he was tackled to the ground in the second term of Sunday’s Hampden league game against Warrnambool at Reid Oval
He was taken to hospital by ambulance, where medical staff assessed the damage — a fractured radial head and both joints in the elbow dislocated.
“They had to sedate me and I was half knocked out,” he said.
“They popped it back in and it popped out five times. In the end they had to sedate me again, pop it back in and put a cast on straight away so it wouldn’t pop out again.”
Lee will wear the cast for four weeks and next week has to consult a surgeon to check if the healing process is progressing as hoped. If not, he faces surgery for pins to be inserted.
The talented backman is hoping to avoid surgery in the hope of returning to football before the end of the season.
He expects to be sidelined for at least 12 weeks but if surgery is required he doubts he will make it back before the end of the Roosters’ campaign.
Lee said he had been looking forward to this season, having enjoyed a good summer.
He has been lining up alongside older brother Olle in defence for both the Roosters’ two matches. With Olle at university in Geelong and Harry working as a teacher’s assistant at the Warrnambool Special Development School during a gap year, they were having fun together on the field.
Harry, who has played 16 senior games since making his debut last year, intends studying primary teaching with a focus on disability education next year.
But he said he wanted to continue wearing South’s red and white colours, like his father Robbie.
“We are such a young group. If we keep moulding together, we will have a good side,” he said.
Lee said he was proud of the way the young side shocked powerhouse Warrnambool in the opening half of Sunday’s match, leading at quarter-time.
“We hit them pretty hard. They didn’t expect that to be the case,” he said.
“We just ran out of legs. They’ve got some strong bodies and with young kids getting knocked around a lot it takes a bit out of you.”
