Mani Liddy recounts how he overcame a horrific injury, which required him to wear a leg sleeve, to eventually make his AFL debut as a mid-season draftee for Port Adelaide.
"It was at The Parade last year, a pretty wet night, pretty muddy, and I went to tackle someone and fell awkwardly on the back of their boots. It was bleeding a little and at three-quarter time I went and got it cleaned out, stitched up and finished the game," Liddy told AFL.com.au after his debut.
"Then the next day the doctor put me on antibiotics and my knee started blowing up. I could still walk on the Sunday, but I tried going into work on the Monday and I could barely walk that day. I went to training that night and it looked OK. But then on the Tuesday I couldn't put any weight through it, it was that painful.
"The next day me and mum went to the hospital and they cut it open straight away and flushed it, just because the swelling and the infection was crawling up my leg, my groin was pretty red, so it got pretty high.
"I spent two nights in hospital, had a couple of surgeries and the scar ended up a lot bigger than what it originally was because they had to check everything and clean the whole knee out properly. I sat at home for 10 days with my leg straight because of how awkward the spot is. It is on the side of my knee, so I couldn't bend it to let the scar heal. Missed five games at the end of last year, came back in the finals and that's where I started the leg sleeve.
"It split open a couple of times in the pre-season because I didn't wear the leg sleeve and it bleeds out because the skin is so thin on my knee. The leg sleeve protects it pretty well and looks all right."