Parramatta Eels
With his signature being chased after by the majority of ARL clubs Ritson eventually agreed to sign for the Parramatta Eels for the start of the 1996 season. Adam was placed into the Eels starting line-up with immediate effect and after playing just eleven games for his new club struck tragedy in a fixture against the Canberra Raiders. Just two minutes into the game he was knocked unconscious after a dangerous high tackle from Canberra forward John Lomax and with the completion of the game and a routine scan it was discovered he had a life-threatening brain cyst. Ritson then went on to have fourteen operations over the next year several of which nearly left him dead, eventually he made a full recovery but was never the same and retired from the game later that year at the age of twenty.
After his career was effectively over at such a young age a lawsuit was filed by Ritson first against Lomax for the high tackle but was then shifted towards his club the Raiders instead. Eventually the case was settled out of court with Ritson being given a six-figure sum.
Read more about this topic: Adam Ritson
Famous quotes containing the word eels:
“Going down for the last time, the last breath lying,
I grapple with eels like ropes—it’s ether, it’s queer
and then, at last, it’s done. Now the scavengers arrive,
the hard crawlers who come to clean up the ocean floor.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)