Hille stung into action

TO HEAR David Hille tell the story, there wasn't much to it.

The 27-year-old was stung by a stingray on Sunday night, but was back training with the Bombers on Friday morning.

Last year's Crichton medallist as Essendon's best-and-fairest was playing it down when he talked to the media about the incident.

"I was just walking on Sunday down at Albert Park beach, and managed to stand on a stingray," he said at La Trobe University in Bundoora after an early morning training session.

"It was just a little bit murky, the water, so I couldn't really see where I was standing, and yeah, he got me.

"I felt like I stood on it, so I jumped up, but it still got me, so I just walked myself to the lifeguards and asked them what to do.

"They patched me up, and then I just drove myself to hospital."

The third AFL player to be nailed by a rampant ray inside a year, Hille said he was pretty lucky, given the reactions of Eagle Daniel Kerr and Bulldog Jarrad Grant last year.

"Obviously we all know how serious these can be, and I'd like to think I'm on the rather lighter end of it.

"I didn't have the pain that Jarrad and perhaps Daniel had, so it seems to be quite a minor event.

"I got checked out by the toxicologist (at the hospital) and it was all fine. The ultrasound found the remainder of the barb, and that had to be removed, so I got that done on Monday, and that's that.

"I haven't had a really bad swelling response, like perhaps the others did, which is fortunate, because that's probably the majority of the issue.

"I was able to train today and it feels fine, and the majority of what I was doing today was easing myself back in from the hamstring."