“A little bit sore. I’ve got a pretty sore lower back after trying to take out the fence. No real damage, but pretty sore this morning,” he told kangaroos.com.au on Sunday after returning to Aegis Park with MRI scans in hand.
“I had x-rays last night and they came back all clear so there’s no bone damage or structure damage which is a good result, and went in for scans just before…there’s a bit of muscle damage and ligament tears but that’s probably a good result in the end.”
Lucky not to have sustained any spinal damage after colliding with the Mazda BT-50 signage behind the goals at Etihad Stadium, Hansen was upright and walking, albeit gingerly.
“I feel like I’m about 100 years old…I couldn’t get out of bed and just feel like I’ve been playing footy for 50 years or something because I could hardly walk but…get a few pain killers into me and the pain should slowly go away which will be a good thing.”
The 22 year-old is also fortunate to be able to recall the incident given the velocity at which he hit the fence with his upper body and head.
“I just tried to kick the goal. I got the boot on there and was pretty happy to kick the goal and then fell over straight into the fence and just immediately grabbed my back and thought ‘Ah, geez, something’s gone wrong there’…felt a bit of a crack and it was a bit scary.
“When the doc’s came out they did all the precautionary stuff and kept me pretty still. When I got to the hospital I got the good news that it wasn’t any fractures or anything and felt a lot better after that.”
And there was no hiding from the sickening collision once he was admitted either.
“I was actually in the hospital getting my scans and it (the replay) was on…Before The Game came on and I was like, ‘Oh, don’t want to watch it’, but I watched it and it didn’t look that good but I’m just happy that it’s nothing too serious.”
While he is struggling with the pain now, Hansen is looking at being pain free and courageously wants to hold on to his spot in the side.
“I’ll be trying to get myself up for this week but I haven’t really spoken to the physios yet after the scans but hopefully if anything, I’ll only miss a week. So I’ll be trying to put myself up for selection this week.”
