Player Column – Dylan Ross WA Day

IT IS fair to say my 2015 season hasn’t gone to script so far but a few things were explained when a blood test showed I had glandular fever a few days ago. Now after a fair bit of rest I'm starting to feel better and am looking forward to having a run around with the boys on Monday.

We played against East Perth a few weeks ago and I was running around in the reserves and feeling a little bit flat, but I got through the game reasonably well and thought I played OK. But I then got a little bit crook and I saw Rach our doctor and mentioned that I have been sick a couple of times this year. She gave me a blood test and funnily enough it came back that I had glandular fever.

It's a bit of a tricky illness and most of the time they can't really prescribe you medication for it, it's just rest so over the last 30 days I haven’t done a great deal especially the first couple of weeks. I've now eased back into training trying to get myself right and luckily enough I'll be able to have a run around this Monday which is good.

Speaking to Rach, I probably had glandular fever for a month or so before we diagnosed it but being how I am I don’t like to miss too many games so I might have kept it under the radar and played when I was a bit crook or flat. In hindsight that probably hasn’t helped me but it has given me a few lessons to learn from and I need to listen to my body a bit more, and when I'm crook I need to put my hand up and see the doctor.

I had to sit out our game against Peel completely and that was hard because I'm not the greatest at watching games when I can't play. To watch the boys knowing you want to be out there with them trying your best is difficult and I was still pushing pretty hard for them to let me have a run against Peel, but it was out of my hands and Rach, our physio Swanny and the medical staff told that rest was the best thing for me. I was willing to get out there and help the boys out, but unfortunately I just had no energy and was a bit crook.

I did have a bit of a scare this Tuesday night when I got up to go to the toilet, but I felt a bit faint and had a bit of a fall and hit my head pretty hard on the ground. But again I saw Rach and she gave me the all clear to have a run around at training on Thursday after I missed that Tuesday session. I got through that run on Thursday and I felt as though I had a bit of spring back in my step which was great.

Luckily enough we had the two byes in there since I last played against East Perth so I have only missed the one game which is good. I've had the 30 days rest now and I probably won't know if I'm well enough until I'm running out there on Monday, but I felt good at training on Thursday and even though I'll be playing in the reserves, it will still be good to be out there. I want to play well for the footy club and hopefully we end up with both grades beating East Fremantle.

It will always be tough watching the league boys without me out there, but circumstances over the last month or so have put me behind the eight ball. Derbies are always big games and it doesn’t matter what position you are at on the ladder, all the blokes at South pride themselves on having a good performance against East Fremantle especially at their ground where we have the wood over them the last few years. Most of the boys will be setting themselves for a big one.