Bailey Churchill: Holbrook footballer flown to Melbourne after rupturing his spleen

Churchill, 20, was playing for the Brookers reserves against Jindera at Holbrook when he suffered a big hit attempting a courageous mark running back with the flight near the goal square.

His father, club president Anthony Churchill, was goal umpiring at the opposite end of the ground when the incident happened around 10 minutes into the game.

"He was running towards the posts and had his arms out in front of him when he got cleaned up just below the rib area," Anthony said.

"I heard it from where I was and I thought 'geez, that would have hurt' and when I saw (wife) Melissa walk over, I realised it was Bailey.

"He was breaking out in sweats and went really pale so Melissa took him straight over to the hospital, which is next door to the footy ground there."

Bailey soon figured out something wasn't right.

"I hit the ground and I'd been winded a few times before and usually it takes a bit to get your breath back but I got my breath back and it was still hurting quite a bit," he said.

"I went off the ground, sat on the bench for a little bit and it wasn't getting any better so I went into the trainer's room.

"It was a sharp pain at the start and then every time I was taking a breath, it was like having a stitch."

It took around six hours for an ambulance to arrive to take Churchill to Albury, where the picture started to become clearer.

"They knew straight away it was something fairly serious," Anthony said.

"While they were waiting for some scan results, they did an ultrasound and that's when they saw there had been bleeding on the spleen.

"They contacted The Alfred in Melbourne and said 'we need to get him down there asap.'

"The ICU manager at Albury explained the worst-case scenario to us, that if it started to bleed again, they would have to do an emergency operation and take his spleen out.

"That was pretty daunting and we were thinking 'this is escalating pretty quick here.'"

Bailey did his best to keep calm as the evening wore on.

"It's a bit concerning but I don't think I ever got too stressed," he said.

"I always knew the best decision was going to be made.

"But it does creep into your head a bit when you start to think 'this is maybe a little bit worse than what I first thought."

Bad weather meant it was 2.30am by the time Churchill could board the air ambulance to Melbourne.

"I was sat in the back with a paramedic and he was talking me through what was happening, he was really good," Bailey said.

"I suppose it was a bit surreal.

"You pump yourself up all pre-season and to only get 10 minutes, I was more frustrated that I wasn't going to be able to play for the rest of the day than I was concerned about how I was feeling.

"Sitting over in the hospital bed in Holbrook, I was messaging Dad and then when the ones started, I was watching the live stream so I could keep up-to-date with what was going on."

Holbrook were left hanging on in that game before eventually beating Jindera by a goal.

"I thought 'the boys have got it in the bag here early' and then towards the end of the game, it wasn't looking too good," Bailey said.

"Sharpy (coach Matt Sharp) gave me a ring after the game and I said 'you've put me through a fair bit of stress there at the end.'"

Bailey's parents followed him down to Melbourne by road after he'd left Albury.

"You're sitting there and he's in a fair bit of pain so it wasn't ideal," Anthony said.

"It was all uncertain, what was going to happen but we knew, once he was going to Melbourne, that he was going to be in pretty good hands down there.

"We went home, had a couple of hours sleep and got up on Sunday morning and raced down there.

"They said it was a Grade 4 tear, that 50 percent of the spleen was torn.

"Bailey had the procedure on Sunday afternoon to repair the spleen, he spent Sunday night in ICU and he's in good spirits.

"They're confident it was successful and hopefully he'll be back on the general ward soon."

"I've seen about a thousand different nurses and doctors," Bailey added.

"It's been really good here, everyone's been very positive and I can't fault it at all."

The family have been inundated with messages of support from the Brookers community ever since Churchill came off the ground on Saturday.

"It's been huge," Anthony said.

"We've heard from most of the players, coaching staff and committee, it's been non-stop for Melissa and I on the phone and a lot of the players have been in touch with Bailey as well.

"That says a lot about the people we've got involved at the club, it's pretty good.

"Bailey's been OK through all of this, his biggest concern is not being able to play footy - but he definitely won't be playing footy any time soon."

Churchill has played 145 games for Holbrook from under-14s up to seniors.

The Brookers started the season by winning all four grades of football on Saturday, including the reserves, which they took out by 10.5 (65) to 4.6 (30) with Jayden Hucker booting three goals.

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