Father of seriously ill West Coast forward speaks out on club’s “disappointing” care for son’s health
Chris Waterman, father of West Coast forward Jake Waterman, has spoken out about the club’s handling of his son’s ongoing health issue.
Waterman last played in the Round 12 loss to Collingwood but has missed the last two games with what was thought to be a nasty stomach infection.
While Waterman has improved somewhat since being sent home ahead of the Round 13 clash against the Crows in Adelaide, Chris says he’s still taking time to recover as they’re unsure exactly how well the 25-year-old is improving.
“I spoke to him last night,” Waterman told SEN WA Breakfast.
“He seemed a little bit more spritely in his voice.
“But look, it's just a slow burn with him, he’s having infusions at the moment, he’s had one round, he has his next round this Friday.
“A lot of people ask me, but I don't know where it's at right now.
“He's hopefully on the improve, but how long it takes and if it's a full recovery, we're still unsure.
“It's all just a wait and see and just hope at the moment.”
According to Chris, Jake is unsure whether he’ll play football again given how serious the health concern – which has been diagnosed as ulcerative colitis – is.
Waterman says his son may face surgery or be on medication for the rest of his life to treat the issue.
“There's that small percentage, according to the doctors that it (not playing again) could possibly happen,” Waterman said.
“They'll be pulling out every string for it not to happen, they want to get him back to normal health, and that's where they're all heading towards.
“I think that's where it's going to head, whether he lives on medication for the rest of his life or not, but it's still not sure.
“It’s not cut and clear at the moment. It’s called ulcerative colitis, it's an inflammatory bowel disease that may or may not be incurable, that's the part we're just gearing towards,
“The final stage is potentially surgery, we're hoping we don't get to that and we're hoping that the infusions will settle the inflammation down.
“He may just have to do infusions for a few more years until it gets back to normal.
“Since it's all happened, a lot of people have reached out that have had family members and all that go through it.
“It's pretty hard, the first four or five days he was really sick, but more often than not, you can get back to a normal life.
“So that's where we're hopefully heading to.”
Chris says Jake had been battling ill health before succumbing to the infection after playing multiple games while sick.
Waterman says his son was curled up into a ball and incapacitated before he finally was ruled out of playing.
“The two games leading in, he was in hospital just before the Essendon game, he had infected finger and stomach,” Waterman revealed.
“I rang him on a Saturday morning in the Collingwood game and he was no good, had a reaction to some more antibiotics.
“He basically said both Saturday mornings, ‘Dad, I’ve got to play, we’ve just got no numbers’.
“Then, when I rang him Saturday in Adelaide, he was basically curled up in a ball.
“I said, ‘Ok, it's got a bit more serious’, and they (West Coast) texted me and said they're sending him home.
“It's been just over two weeks, it’s been a pretty heavy two weeks for him, in the first four or five days, he was really sick.
“But luckily, the people at Hollywood (Private Hospital) were fantastic and looked after him, and he's been out for a week now.”
While Waterman acknowledged the Eagles are juggling plenty of on and off-field issues, he was disappointed that the club didn’t check in on Jake until he was days into his hospital stay.
Given Jake comes off contract at the end of the season, Chris – who played 177 games for the club – says the Eagles would want to “put some time into him” to get him to re-sign.
“The club's got a lot going on obviously, but the family and friends are 24/7 around the clock checking in on him just to make sure everything's right, he said.
“They could have probably reached out a bit earlier to check on him, I would have thought.
“To send him home from Adelaide pretty crook and to find out when he was in hospital on Monday night was the first time they contacted him … it was a bit disappointing.
“I would have thought they'd reached out and just checked on him.
“Since then, they now know it's pretty serious and they've got to do what they can do. They've got to act on it and make sure they keep their eye on him if they want him on the list.
“He's a 25-year-old coming out of contract. Put some time into him I would have thought.”
Jake Waterman has kicked 79 goals from 84 career games since making his debut in 2018.
Listen to the full chat below.
More in AFL
“This time next year…”: Cornes’ bold pick for his next AFL head coach in waiting
“I think he is the most ready head coach in waiting.”
Why Brereton has Collingwood as a top-two seed ahead of the 2025 season
“I think the Magpies are probably my number one or two seed for the season.”