“Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”
These were the immortal words of Lou Gehrig - just days after he’d been diagnosed with the debilitating disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - in a final address to the tens of thousands who’d gathered in his honour at Yankee Stadium on American Independence Day 1939.
The heartfelt sentiments, so memorably conveyed by the New York Yankees’ hallowed hitter almost three quarters of a century ago, might just as easily apply today to the Carlton footballer Simon White . . . and if “Whitey” could nod his approval he’d do so.
Problem is that White’s head and neck have been immobilised by an intimidating brace the 26-game Carlton backman must now wear for a further eight weeks minimum – the legacy of a fractured C3 vertebrae incurred when the West Australian put his head where it shouldn’t on a wet deck in the Northern Blues-Box Hill match last Saturday week.
But as awful as it is, White knows that he is a lucky man for very different reasons – particularly so in the context of the not dissimilar but catastrophic on-field incident which recently left South Barwon’s Casey Tutungi a quadriplegic.
“I read a little bit about Casey’s damage to the C4 and C5 vertebrae,” White said. “Mine was C3, a bit higher, so it is a fine line. I’m very lucky. My best wishes go out to him and his family who have been so supportive.”
For the 25 year-old White, the incident in which he was involved seemed so very innocuous.
“I grabbed the footy and tried to sidestep and duck under a tackle. I didn’t get much purchase on the wet ground and it was bad luck that a bloke was coming straight towards me and caught me flush,” White said.
“I got a bit of a hit and felt a stiff neck, but didn’t think much more of it. In fact I would have gone back on had I not been pulled off towards the end of the game to get ready for the Gold Coast (match).”
Admitting fault for the on-field action which led to the damage, White acknowledged that umpires were right in adopting a more vigilant response to the player dropping his head prior to making contact with another.
As he said: “It’s the player searching for a free kick with his head down that they need to ping, and I ended up getting done for holding the ball, although I don’t think I could have done a whole lot differently”.
“I knew I’d put my head in the wrong position and I got penalized for it, but all I really thought I had was a stiff neck,” White said. “I heard a crack, but I never thought it was as serious as it turned out.”
It wasn’t until last Tuesday, after he’d completed a rigorous Pilates session, that White took a call from the club doctor recommending an immediate meeting with a neurosurgeon . . . “and the neurosurgeon was quite amazed about how much movement I had”.
When a subsequent scan revealed the extent of the injury, White’s neck was promptly encased in the fiberglass cervical collar, dubbed the ‘Miami J Brace’. White now sleeps in the cast and cannot drive a car, so he relies on roommate Michael Jamison and his girlfriend to help get him from A to B.
“‘Waitey’s’ (Jarrad Waite) has also been a bit of a help,” White added. “He went into Nike to get me three or four new hoodies I can wear to cover the brace up.”
Thankfully, White can remove the brace when he showers, and that’s proved extremely liberating. As he flippantly remarked: “The water bill’s going through the roof because my showers are lasting 45 minutes”, and who can blame him?
With the imprimatur of Carlton Senior Coach Michael Malthouse, White this week returns to his native Perth and to family for what will be a brief hiatus over the next few days.
On his return, he will assist where he can on gameday, maybe sit in the box at senior or reserve grade level, and basically keep an involvement about the place.
The layoff will also afford him the opportunity to complete a business law course and diploma in management, as he warily walks the road to recovery.
