Shaun Burgoyne Reflects On Knee Surgery Which Nearly Ended His Career

In conversation with Mark Howard on The Howie Games, Shaun Burgoyne spoke on the mental and physical battles involving a mid-career surgery and how it catapulted his longevity.

Ahead of his 400th career game this weekend, the Hawks legend expressed how close he came to having his career derailed at the age of 26. 

"It’s a tough one. When you are 26 and you’ve never had, or I’ve had one injury before that pretty much. But you think you are bulletproof." Burgoyne said on The Howie Games.

LISTEN TO PART A OF THE CHAT HERE:

'Silk' joins an illustrious, yet small group of footballers who have reached the major milestone. Undoubtedly a fairytale match-up against Port Adelaide, the side who selected him as a teenager. 

Howie asked Burgoyne his thoughts on the direction his career was heading in the midst of the challenging knee injury.

"The surgery I had, what I was told by the surgeon probably didn’t give me too much hope when he was about to put me under he said 'this is either going to work Shaun or it’s not and it’s going to be the end of your career'.  

"That was pretty much the last words the surgeon said to me before I went under on the operating room table. So I didn’t think I was in it for too much longer when he said that to me."

Burgoyne becomes the first Indigenous player to reach 400 AFL/VFL games, collecting four premierships on his journey including one with Port Adelaide.

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