Melbourne's Cale Morton in action three days before undergoing post-season surgery on his nose
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THE OFF-SEASON for AFL footballers can involve a number of things: post-season surgery, a getaway overseas or spending time with family.
For Demon young-gun Cale Morton, he ticked off all of the above in his six-week break before resuming pre-season training with Melbourne on Monday.
Just three days after he played in Melbourne's final home-and-away match for the 2009 season, Morton underwent surgery – twice in three days.
"I was in [surgery] Wednesday and woke up on Wednesday night with my nose done and in a world of pain," Morton explained. "Then I went in on Friday morning and got my thumb done. That was only minor surgery, but I still had a general anesthetic," he said.
"After waking up after that, the pain was something I don't want to go through again.
"It was bloody sore waking up after the thumb was done, because I hadn't had the painkillers for my nose surgery for about 12 hours.
"It was very, very intense, but it was something I had to get done. The thumb [operation] will help me with my marking down the track."
Morton said recovering from a nose operation was a particularly tough period.
Upon reflection he is glad he had it done as he is now able to breath through his nose properly for the first time in 18 months.
"I had the septoplasty [procedure] done, which is straightening up the septum that runs up the middle of your nose. The recovery of that was painful – real painful," he said.
"It was done to correct the breathing and the obstruction of the airwaves in my nose.
"When I woke up, my nose was packed up with surgical packs and my nose was completely blocked. It was like going through hell for the first couple of days after it, but a month down the track, I'm grateful for the operation.
"I'm looking forward to being able to eat properly now … and I'm hoping it will help my aerobic capacity as well."
After 14 days of rest and recovery from his nose and thumb operation – he wasn't able to do any exercise or weights during this period – Morton then relished the opportunity to head to Thailand with his girlfriend before returning to his native WA to celebrate his brother Jarryd's 21st birthday.
Despite the operations in his six-week break, Morton had no problems with returning to pre-season early for the second successive season.
"The break was good and six weeks holiday is, in my opinion, a good amount of time," he said.
"It was a good break and there will be people out there that would say they'd like the full eight weeks [in a row], but the consensus among the whole group was to come back early.
"As a group, we decided that was the best way forward for us."
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