Overview
- After roughly three months of recovery, the North Melbourne forward has returned to training and remains a chance to face Port Adelaide on March 15.
- He was diagnosed in Bali with an empyema following illness in Europe, and the club doctor arranged a medical evacuation to Perth for urgent surgery at Hollywood Hospital.
- Surgeons removed almost a litre of pus and inserted a drain, and he remained in hospital for eight days before beginning rehabilitation.
- Curtis says a London hospital initially sent him away and cleared him to fly on oral antibiotics, a level of care a Perth infectious-diseases specialist labeled reprehensible.
- He suffered a severe allergic reaction to the antibiotics during the long-haul flight, and he credits video calls with his three-year-old son for helping him push through recovery.