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The day Tom lost his kidney

Tom Lonergan began his career like many other footballers, he started in junior footy and slowly worked his way up to senior level.  But his AFL career took a scary turn just seven games in with the Geelong Football Club.

In Round 21 in 2006, Tom went back with the flight of the ball just as there were two oncoming players heading straight for him. One of them was Melbourne player Brad Miller who had turned his body at the last second and collided straight into the side of Tom.

“Straight after I just wanted to vomit, I went to crawl off the ground and the trainers came up and said you’re just winded but I knew it was a lot more than just winded.”

“I was in an induced coma for 4 or 5 days, the doctor told me I had lost my right kidney.”

“I was in an induced coma for 4 or 5 days, the doctor told me I had lost my right kidney” – Tom Lonergan

“I don’t think we fully comprehended how serious and how full on it all was” said former teammate Cameron Ling.

Like the trainers, the team also thought Tom had just been winded in one of many on-field clashes between players and were shocked to find out how serious it became.

“It was so serious, he had lost a kidney- there are more important things than footy.  We thought he’ll finish up there because it’s just too serious to go on.”

“It was only the seventh senior game I’d played, when I got back to AFL level I set myself a goal that I wanted to get my name on a locker, get to 100 games”.  Even though he was coming from a long way back, Tom was determined to achieve his goal.  He is now on the verge of completing those 100 games, something to be immensely proud of.

Having been involved in the accident, Miller could not believe the courage shown by Tom.

“Now only having one kidney, I don’t think I would be courageous enough to make that kind of decision to come back and achieve what he has done, it’s a credit to him. It speaks of his character.”

Tom is a modest footballer, explaining how he had little talent but happened to have height, which is what enabled him to make it to the AFL.  The character he’s shown after the accident proves there is a lot more to successful footballers than height or talent.

Words by Zoe Dunstan