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Former West Coast Eagles rookie Patrick Bines suffered a career-ending injury in 2019. While playing for the Eagles as a category B rookie in 2019, during a mistimed spoil, he suffered a hit at the back of his neck that pushed him to undergo 20 operations. These procedures left him with the inability to move his head without excruciating pain.

Bines recently opened up about needing a 4X dosage of painkilling opioid tablets that have made him spend 22 hours a day lying flat on his bed. His pain was so disturbing that he consulted Victoria’s voluntary euthanasia society for assessing his options and also took morphine at a Richmond injecting room for reliving his pain. 

While speaking to the Herald Sun, Patrick Bines expressed, “My dose was four times the regular adult dose. So it was eight or nine tablets when the regular dose was two,' he recalled. 'There was a stage where I was spending 22 hours in my room laying down unable to move.”

“I was there getting morphine for my neck" 

While addressing his drug use, Bines said, “I am not a drug user. I hate drugs. You buy your own things (drugs) off the street. I was there getting morphine for my neck. I would go 40 hours without sleeping because I was in so much pain and I was going crazy. I was having morphine and even that wouldn't take the pain away.”

“I haven't worked since my last paycheck in 2019. Every day is different,” Bines said. “I have good days and I have horrible days. When I wake up I don't know which one it's going to be. Which employer will hire someone when there are days you won't be able to work? So I take it day by day.”

“ I just don’t want this to happen to another 18-year-old”

Bines has also agreed to be part of a lawsuit that will help athletes like him to get a payout for their health. He said, “To get a payout you would need to lose a limb to classify, and I don’t know an injury in the AFL where you would lose a limb or have something amputated,” Bines said this week. It doesn’t make sense. It’s capped at $500,000 anyway.”

“There is no workers’ comp, there is no income protection. For people to have their lives so restricted, I just don’t want this to happen to another 18-year-old".