{"id":619283,"date":"2026-04-20T13:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T13:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/619283\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T13:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T13:59:08","slug":"carlton-player-elijah-hollands-admitted-to-hospital-after-mental-health-episode-afl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/619283\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlton player Elijah Hollands admitted to hospital after \u2018mental health episode\u2019 | AFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlton player Elijah Hollands has been admitted to hospital four days after what his club described as \u201ca mental health episode\u201d against Collingwood.<\/p>\n

The Blues had been investigating the circumstances surrounding Hollands\u2019 concerning and erratic performance<\/a> at the MCG on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

On Monday night, Carlton released a statement confirming Hollands was in hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Carlton Football Club can confirm that Elijah Hollands has been admitted to hospital this evening,\u201d the Blues said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the club acknowledges the public\u2019s interest, it again asks that the privacy of Elijah and his family be respected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis request for privacy extends to the media to please not report or speculate on Hollands\u2019 location and private health information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hollands had been getting support from his father Ben, and Carlton had already ruled him out of travelling to Perth for Saturday night\u2019s match against Fremantle, in the wake of what it said was his \u201cmental health episode\u201d against the Magpies.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old Hollands initially ended Thursday night\u2019s defeat at the MCG without registering a statistic, despite playing 75% of the match across the first three quarters, and was benched during the fourth term.<\/p>\n

He was eventually awarded a possession by Champion Data in retrospect, an ineffective kick in the third term.<\/p>\n

Several videos circulated online after the match appearing to show Hollands confused and exhibiting erratic behaviour on the field.<\/p>\n

The AFL<\/a> has asked Carlton for a review of the circumstances around what happened with Hollands to be provided to the league once it has been completed.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Carlton chief executive, Graham Wright, was unable to explain why Hollands returned to the field in the last quarter. Nor could he explain when personnel from Carlton\u2019s football department realised he was struggling.<\/p>\n

Last year, Hollands twice took personal leave from Carlton, later revealing he had been battling mental ill-health and issues with alcohol.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Wright said he \u201cat this stage\u201d ruled out alcohol or illicit substances being factors affecting Hollands during the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re dealing with a mental health issue … right at the moment,\u201d Wright told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in the process of going through all the circumstances leading up to the game, two or three weeks prior to the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur primary focus remains on caring for Elijah, making sure he continues to receive the medical and well-being support he needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cElijah\u2019s mental challenges have been well documented.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur staff have been working alongside Elijah on this journey with him over a long period of time now, both on and off the field, providing every resource possible to ensure his welfare is paramount.<\/p>\n

\u201cThursday night presented unprecedented and complex circumstances. We\u2019re taking this very seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hollands, who turns 24 on Saturday, was delisted by the Blues at the end of last season, despite having a year to run on his contract.<\/p>\n

But he was invited to Carlton training over summer, and impressed enough to win his spot back on the list.<\/p>\n

He has played all six games this season, averaging 18.4 possessions before his concerning night against the Magpies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlton player Elijah Hollands has been admitted to hospital four days after what his club described as \u201ca…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-619283","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}