HEATH Shaw will take every precaution before a decision is made on his availability going forward following the heavy knock he took playing for Greater Western Sydney on Saturday.
Shaw described the moment when his face struck Kurt Tippett's knee attempting to prevent the Sydney Swan taking a mark as "lights out", spending Saturday night in hospital for observation as a result.
The defender was cleared of any structural damage and released the following day, returning to the club on Monday.
A decision on his chances of playing against Adelaide on Saturday will be made later in the week and Shaw was at least able to make light of the situation.
"I got the all-clear from the docs, no breaks or fractures or anything like that in the face," Shaw told the GWS website.
"Just the concussion and I'll go through that concussion procedure this week and see how I go.
"Looking at the replay I'm surprised I didn't break anything and probably should've taken up boxing or something with the solid jaw that I've got.
"Everyone was cracking jokes that I've got no brains, so I'm surprised they found something on the scans.
"But it's obviously something that's pretty sensitive and you can't really take these things too lightly.
"I'm happy to come away fairly unscathed and get back out there as soon as possible."
Just prior to the incident, the Swans had gained possession inside their defensive 50m and quickly moved it up field.
With Tippett set to take an uncontested mark deep in the forward line, Shaw did all he could to prevent that from happening, not that he can remember much of it now.
"I remember obviously the build-up to it," he said.
"Sydney had the ball out on the far wing and I turned around and saw Tippett running inside 50 by himself.
"Obviously Phil (Davis) or whoever was playing on him was nowhere to be seen, so I did the right thing and covered the big tall defender and headbutted the knee and obviously came off second best.
"Timing is everything – his knee came up as I went forward and it was lights out after that.
"I spent a night in hospital at St Vincent's, got out yesterday and passed all the tests, and looking forward to slowly making myrecovery back and getting back out there again."
