Vickery ready to return to AFL

Richmond ruckman Ty Vickery is still unsure what caused his dramatic collapse last month in an AFL pre-season game.

But a battery of tests has reassured the Tigers big man that the bizarre incident was a one-off.

Vickery is set to return to the side for Thursday night’s final NAB Challenge match against Port Adelaide at Etihad Stadium.

Early in their opening pre-season game against Fremantle, Vickery shaped to mark the ball even though it was about 50m away.

The dazed player then collapsed and was helped from the field shortly after.

Vickery missed their second NAB Challenge match as he went through the tests.

“I’m good – it’s a bit of a strange event that happened, but I’ve ticked a lot of boxes since,” he said.

“I’ve gone through a lot of tests and built up training.

“I’ve been fine for a couple of weeks.”

He added the footage of his dazed state was disturbing.

“I was surprised – I had no idea, I thought I’d just collapsed,” he said.

“I remember waking up on the ground.

“It was obviously pretty tough to see, particularly for my family and not having those answers initially.”

Vickery said he had trained hard for the last couple of weeks and is not worried in the wake of the incident.

“We’re not quite sure and provided it doesn’t happen again, it’s probably not too big a deal, not knowing,” he said.

“If it does, it obviously is a problem.

“I did extensive testing on my brain and my heart throughout the nine days afterwards and they all came out clear.

“It’s a one-off, hopefully.”

The Monday after the game, Vickery met with the club doctor and it was made clear that he would not return to playing without the thorough series of tests.

“It was quite intimidating and then ticking them off one, two a day for a week was really tough,” he said.

Vickery also praised Fremantle opponent Alex Silvagni, who helped him in the immediate aftermath of the episode.

“I remember him actually talking to me, telling me I will be okay and trying to stop the game,” he said.

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