“I got real worried because … I went to pick him up off the ground and he couldn’t breathe. [Hughes said]: ‘I am in real pain. Don’t pick me up, let me get up myself’,” Fevola told his breakfast radio show on Fox.
In hospital: Dave Hughes was seriously hurt in the Legends Match at Marvel Stadium on Thursday.Credit: Getty Images
“I reckon that’s when it happened, he literally could not get up off the ground. [Hughes said]: ‘Don’t touch me, don’t touch me’. He was laying there, a few people thought he was putting it on, but I thought he was in trouble.”
Holly Hughes said her husband had been in pain in bed at home.
“It was not a good sound and I was like: ‘Babe, I think we need to call an ambulance’,” Hughes said.
“And he was like: ‘Nah, I am fine, I am just a bit sore’.”
While his ribs and lung will take time to heal, Hughes has escaped a spleen injury.
“In the end, the spleen looks OK. He has had an x-ray, he has had a CT scan,” Holly Hughes said.
All-Stars coach Shane Crawford had joked to his players in his pre-match speech that they needed to rough up the typically cheery Hughes.
“There is one player from the Vics that I have really earmarked, and it’s Dave Hughes,” Crawford said, prompting his players to burst out with laughter.
“I don’t care about the other players. They are all good players. They are old, they are slow. I want him [Hughes] to never put up his hand again [to play], so I want everyone to tackle him at some stage. And while he is down there, to really get into him.”
In pain: Victoria coach Tim Watson and Dave Hughes.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
Holly Hughes said her husband had been the oldest player on the field.
“It’s all fun and games to target Hughsey, but I think he was the oldest person out there. He is very lean at the moment,” she said.
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A spokeswoman for the event said all “appropriately qualified medical staff and procedures were in place” as if the match had been an AFL game.
After a six-year hiatus, the Legends Match was revived with a wave of fresh stars representing Victoria and the All Stars, a contest that carries the legacy of E.J. Whitten to help raise awareness and vital funds for prostate cancer research.
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