Peter Grave has now packed up and left Saigon to return to Australia (nice to see the churn factor in Saigon is keeping up with Hanoi).

During the Champs, Pete received a fair bump in our last match against the Tigers. It caused him only mild discomfort at the time. A week later, however, with the pain worsening, he decided to visit a hospital in Bangkok to get it checked. They diagnosed that No. 5 was still alive and he had only suffered bruising.

Now back in Australia, Pete decided to have it checked again yesterday. This time the medicos discovered that it wasn’t just bruising but his No. 10 rib was actually cracked. Thankfully, Pete’ll be “sweet as” after a bit of recovery time.

However, this is also a good news story. Pete decided to take advantage of the opportunity to take out medical insurance which had been made available through the Malaysian Warriors.

The Malaysian Warriors had secured a deal through International Medical Insurance, Denmark and the Vietnam Swans paid the premium for each player who provided the necessary personal information prior to the match. So, Peter should receive the full refund of expenses such as catscans, x rays and ultrasounds in both Thailand and Australia.

Currently, this type of medical insurance is only available for those playing outside their country of residence. The Vietnam Swans are working with the Malaysian Warriors to see if IHI will eventually offer it to footy clubs playing in their own country.

Good luck again Pete with the recovery of No. 10 and we hope life back in Melbourne treats you well. It’ll have to treat you well with nearly more Swans back in Melbourne than there are in Vietnam!