A boundary umpire was forced off during Richmond’s clash with Melbourne on ANZAC eve.
The umpire took a tumble as he attempted to back-pedal with the ball bobbling towards him.
The initial fall drew ironic cheers from the fans who seemed to see the funny side of the incident.
However, it took a more serious turn as senior umpire Matt Stevic checked in on one of his assistants.
It became clear that he was unable to continue as the signal was made to the sideline for a physio to check on the umpire who had fallen.
He was seen in some pain, holding his arm that had landed behind him as he fell to his backside on the turf.
The boundary umpire was seen grasping at his left wrist after falling to the turf
He was then assisted to the rooms after a short delay in proceedings
Stevic could be heard over the on-field mics telling the boundary umpire to ‘go straight to the room’ as he was checked on by physios during the delay.
The camera then panned to emergency umpire David Rodan, who seemed unlikely to step into action.
‘Can he step in?’ was the question asked on commentary.
‘Of course he can, he can do anything D Rod’ was the response.
Despite the injury, fans on twitter were less than sympathetic, with some even joking about the severity of the problem.
One watcher wrote, ‘Absolutely no way this umpire is faking an injury caused by himself.’
While the AFL memes account posted, ‘Welcome to the era of the AFL where the game gets stopped because the boundary umpire has a sore wrist.’
Another called for the aforementioned D Rod to be called into action, ‘Not sure why David Rodan is sitting on the bench, the man is the best goal umpire in the league! He makes a call!’
