PORT Adelaide skipper Erin Phillips visited injured young Western Bulldog Brit Gutknecht in hospital in Adelaide after suffering a horrific broken leg while playing against Power.
Gutknecht, 21, broke his tibia and fibula bones in his leg in a choking gone wrong, and play was suspended for at least 30 minutes.
The two teams then played the last minutes of the second quarter, after having to warm up again on the pitch.
“There were no rules on what to do in this situation, we were trying to do our best at the time. No one really knew, there were a lot of moving parts, the way everything the world behaved in that position was unbelievable,” Western Bulldogs captain Ellie Blackburn said.
“The way the Port girls behaved as well, the respect they showed was awesome. Erin was amazing in the process, she even visited Brit several times in the hospital which was amazing that she showed that support.
“The officials, the referees were great at communicating with us and our team, the coaches and our support staff were obviously great at talking to us and making sure everyone was okay in this process.
“Obviously we’ve never witnessed anything like this before, it was pretty scary to be honest, and something I would never wish on anyone ever to happen. But because of the way Brit behaved, it allowed the girls to hang out there and play the rest of the game.”
Western Bulldogs players surround teammate Brit Gutknecht after she broke her leg in the second round, season seven, 2022. Picture: AFL Photos
Blackburn said dealing with the somewhat traumatic event was made easier by the team’s closeness.
“There’s a lot of love in our team. We’ve been expressing a lot of that even from the moment, in training last night, the group shared quite a bit and hugged each other as much as possible,” a- she declared. .
“We had Britta on FaceTime to give us a little update, which was great. I’m not going to throw her under the bus with some of the things she said and the videos she sent, especially when she was on the green whistle.
“But it was good to have the group of players that we have supporting each other during this period.”
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The Dogs posted a video on social media showing Gutknecht walking down a hospital hallway using crutches, a day after the double-break surgery.
“She’s fine. I’ve seen injuries in my life but never anything like this. An amazing human being, the way she’s been through this process,” Blackburn said.
“Even when she was on the ground she held up really well and since then she’s had the operation. Things went really well with that so she’s out of hospital now and we hope that’ she’ll be back here at the end of the week.”
