PAT O'HANLON
Nickname Paddy
Born 14 March 1991 (age 24)
Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia
Height 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in)
Weight 102 kg (16 st 1 lb)
Position
Second-row
Patrick O'Hanlon is an Australian rugby league player for the Canterbury Bulldogs in the National Rugby League. His position is second row. O'Hanlon was signed by Parramatta after being selected for Queensland U/18's & Australian schoolboys. Dominating in 2010 & 2011, O'Hanlon in 2010 was named on the bench to play first grade against the New Zealand Warriors in Rd 17, but did not play. He made his NRL debut in Rd 17 2011 against the Brisbane Broncos, coming off the bench to play centre for the injured Jacob Loko. O'Hanlon scored his first try in Rd 3 2012 against the North Queensland Cowboys. He is now currently at Canterbury Bankstown.
September 23, 2014 9:55pm
The Courier-Mail
CANTERBURY forward Pat O’Hanlon knew his career was in jeopardy the moment he looked down to see bone poking out of his blue sock. The Bundaberg front-rower is the forgotten man of Canterbury’s premiership charge, his season ended by a compound leg fracture against Melbourne in the first week of the finals which was so sickening that Channel Nine refused to show a replay. Teammates had to turn their heads away when they saw O’Hanlon’s left leg snapped in half, his tibia shooting out from his skin after what had seemed to be an innocuous tackle. He suffered multiple ankle and leg compound fractures during the first week of the finals.
“I knew immediately. I looked straight down and I could see my bone through my sock,” O’Hanlon said. “That was the only reason I knew. I didn’t hear anything. I didn’t hear a crack or a pop or anything, the first thing I did was look down and my ankle was pointing up into the air and my bone was sticking out of my shin and I thought ‘that doesn’t look anatomically correct’. O’Hanlon was rushed to nearby Epworth Hospital where doctors considered putting the 23-year-old on an emergency flight back to Sydney for surgery.
He had a dislocated and broken ankle, shattered fibula and compound fracture of his tibia. The bones were so badly damaged the Bulldogs doctors could not realign them. It was an injury almost as gruesome as the one which ultimately ended Jharal Yow Yeh’s career.
Luckily for O’Hanlon, renowned ankle surgeon Geoff Tymms stopped at the hospital to visit other patients on his way home from the same Storm-Bulldogs game at AAMI Park. Dr Tymms offered to do the operation and by midnight O’Hanlon had screws and plates inserted and his ligaments reattached.“Jharal was a bit worse, that’s what I’ve been told,” O’Hanlon said. “There is a fair bit of damage there, it was pretty nasty. “With the compound, he got it all back inside the skin and put a plate down the side of my leg and then screwed everything back in and sewed the ligaments back together. “There is a plate and about five or six screws. I’ve seen the X-rays of the job they did and it all looks kind of well aligned again. Now it’s just a matter of letting it set.’’
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O’Hanlon has not been back to Sydney since the injury, instead recovering with his parents on the Gold Coast.
fO’Hanlon may miss premiership glory with the Bulldogs this year, but has vowed to fight back from the injury that has threatened his career and play again next year.
“I knew in my head that with the seriousness of the injury there is a chance (I won’t play again),” he said. “My goal is 2015\. I want to get back on the field desperately but obviously if it does not go to plan like that then I have to reassess a few things but I’m not looking at it like that. “I’m just going to first and foremost do as much as I can in regards to my rehab and hopefully get back on the field.’’
