Popular Adelaide Crows veteran Rory Sloane has shared details — and vision — of the latest round of surgery that he has had on his troublesome eye.
The AFL star had surgery on a detached retina in his right eye at the end of January.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Rory Sloane shares vision of nasty eye surgery.
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It was the 33-year-old’s sixth eye injury and, according 7NEWS Adelaide’s Josh Money, “could be the most serious yet” because it had nothing to do with football.
Now, the former Adelaide captain has explained what he went through in graphic detail, describing it as “torture”.
“I’m currently sitting here recovering from a detached retina,” Sloane said in an Instagram video which he labelled “sensitive content”.
“People have been asking me, ‘what is it?’
“OK, your retina is like your favourite Tracks mag poster, you know the hot one with the bikini girl on it, maybe a cowboy hat on, let’s just call it Belinda, for namesakes,” he said, making a cheeky reference to his famous wife, Belinda (which some fans took an objection, too).
“So Belinda is stuck on a wall, that poster is stuck on a wall, and it is starting to come off and there is fluid in behind … so what you need to do is stick it back on the wall because if Belinda falls down and goes to the ground, you lose your eyesight.
“So to do that they torture you, they pin you down, eye open and inject you with a couple of locals to make sure you don’t feel a thing.”
Needless to say, Sloane included vision of a rather large needle going into his eye.
“Then they use a dry ice-gun to stick that poster back on the wall and, to keep the torture going, they take out some of the fluid … and then they use an even bigger needle and they inject your eye with a gas bubble,” he continued.
“The way that gas bubble works it to make sure your retina, or that poster of Belinda, is stuck against the wall, like a spirit level.”
Sloane said he was fortunate that he was able to sit up during his recovery.
“So I’ve heard of some weird things like people being face down for seven days and on their side for seven days, that was me last time,” he said.
It’s fair to say fans felt a little uncomfortable when watching the video.
“‘OMG, gross the needle in the eye. No thanks,” one wrote on Instagram.
While another said: “Note to self to read captions before watching videos 😂😂.. all the best for your recovery, Rory.”
Collingwood footballer Mason Cox also joined the conversation.
Cox has had multiple surgeries on both his eyes, and has also had a detached retina.
The Magpies premiership big man now plays wearing protective goggles.
“All the best in recovery mate. Any issues happy to help. 🤙,” Cox said.