Richmond veteran Nathan Broad has been blindsided by an “awesome” photo of cult hero Mykelti Lefau tuning in to watch their win over Adelaide immediately after undergoing surgery.
Lefau became the Tigers’ fifth ACL victim of the season when he went down last week and finally went under the knife on Thursday.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Nathan Broad blindsided by Mykelti Lefau’s hospital photo.
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Fresh out of the operating theatre, the 25-year-old quickly tuned in to watch his teammates triumph for just the second time this season.
During the game Richmond shared a photo of Lefau in his hospital bed with the game on the TV in front of him.
Broad, though, was completely unaware of the situation until being shown the image during a post-game interview on Channel 7.
“Oh, I haven’t seen that. That’s awesome,” he said.
“He’s an absolute ripper, Kelti. He’s just so invested in this footy club.
“No one should ever do a knee, unfortunately we’ve got five of them so it’s heartbreaking. But he’ll be back, no doubt.”
Broad said Lefau, a former NRL hopeful with the Melbourne Storm, “had us all fooled” when he was walking around on his injured knee last week.
“He was sitting in the back row in the team meeting, walking down the stairs,” Broad continued.
“We’re all ‘oh yeah he hasn’t done his knee, he’s had us all fooled’.
“He had done his ACL, and that’s just credit to him. He didn’t put the limelight on, walked it off. Just a great clubman.”
Despite Lefau’s blow, Richmond’s injury woes eased somewhat this week when Shai Bolton, Tim Taranto and Dion Prestia all returned for the win.
Dustin Martin was rested on Thursday night to ensure he will play his 300th AFL game at the MCG next weekend.
Curiously, Martin has now missed both of the Tigers’ two wins this year.
Richmond coach Adem Yze said their performance was reward for effort but particularly for the 10 young players with under 50 games of experience.
“We’re still a young side out there. We got some players back, which obviously helped, but we feel like our young players are still growing,” he said.
“And the silver lining in this — Samson Ryan, Seth Campbell, Tyler Sonsie, Tom Brown, all these young players are getting an opportunity and they’re just growing in front of our eyes.
“It was just good to see them get reward with a win.”
