‘Gutted’ Callum Mills expresses regret after sustaining a devastating Mad Monday injury.
Sydney co-captain Callum Mills is unclear when he’ll be able to play again or whether he’ll lose his leadership, calling himself “gutted” after hurting his shoulder during Mad Monday celebrations.
Mills is unaware of the exact timeline for his rehabilitation, but he said his start to the 2024 season was “at risk” as he promised Swans supporters he was doing everything he could to be healthy again as soon as possible.
The 26-year-old, who appeared in front of the cameras on Wednesday with his left arm in a sling, did not provide details of the event but revealed he had ruptured his rotator cuff in the incident, which necessitated surgery last week.
He had not addressed his captaincy with the Swans, but he stated that he did not take the position for granted and enjoyed being a leader.
Mills took up one-third of the Sydney leadership from veteran Josh Kennedy at the start of the 2022 season, but his shoulder injury is the second big off-field setback of his career, prompting the club to question his position.
In 2018, he fractured his foot after stumbling in a gutter while throwing a gridiron ball with teammates on a Sydney street, missing the remaining 13 games of the season.
“I’m gutted that this will potentially put the start of my season at risk, but one thing I do want to assure people is I’m doing everything I possibly can to get back as quick as possible,” Mills stated.
“And for Swans fans, I want to make it really clear that this will not deter my, nor my teammates, commitment to chasing success in 2024.”
The circumstances of the Mad Monday episode, according to Mills, “weren’t necessarily important,” but he accepted “full responsibility” for the outcome.
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“What is important is I’m here today and take ownership for my actions, and put my hand up and own it,” he stated.
“Without diminishing the gravity of the injury, it occurred on that day (Mad Monday), and as I previously stated, I made a bad mistake.”
“There’s a window that we’ve been given (for recovery), the likelihood is it may impact the start of the season but there’s still a lot of water to go under the bridge, and we’ll go on surgeon and specialist advice.”
Mills claimed he had a “extremely difficult” chat with coach John Longmire after learning the seriousness of the injuries days later.
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“As soon as I found the results, I went into Horse’s office and told him exactly what happened, and as you can imagine, he was extremely disappointed, as am I in myself,” Mills stated.
“It was extremely difficult, but it demonstrates my respect for Horse, to be able to own it and accept full responsibility.”
“It was a rather benign accident; for the following several days, I had no idea what I’d done or how severe it was… It was a terrible error, and it’s really irritating, and I’m devastated that this is the outcome.”
