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Glenn Maxwell has shared the graphic details of how an "innocuous" incident at a friend's birthday party left him with a leg break that will keep him out of cricket for months.
- Glenn Maxwell said a friend slipped and fell on his leg at a 50th birthday party
- He detailed the lengthy time it took to get to the hospital and the measures taken to protect his injury
- Maxwell broke both bones in his leg and ruptured ligaments in his foot
Maxwell was pulled from Australia's ODI squad shortly after their T20 World Cup campaign ended after sustaining the injury, and is expected to miss the remainder of the home summer.
Speaking to the cricket.com.au's Unplayable podcast, Maxwell laid out how it went down.
"It was so innocuous. I was at a 50th with a couple of my old Fitzroy-Doncaster friends," Maxwell said.
"One of my mates and I were laughing about something, and I almost pretended to chase him off somewhere.
"Outside it was raining just a little bit, and they didn't really have a grass backyard, they had synthetic grass, and it was only just a small little area, just around the corner.
"I reckon we both took about three or four steps out there, and both slipped at the same time.
"I just got my foot stuck a little bit, and he fell, unfortunately, at a really bad angle and landed straight on my leg, and it just snapped. I heard and felt every part of it."
Maxwell then had to be taken to hospital, a mission that took the best part of two hours in total, for the full extent of the damage to be revealed.
"It was pretty painful, and I was screaming a bit. Then I just hit this ultimate calmness of, like, shock.
"I was like, 'Nah, I've just broken my leg. I'm pretty sure both bones are broken. I don't think I should move. Can you please get my wife?'.
"I think I was laying outside, they got out this mini tent-gazebo to cover me from the rain because we were outside and they didn't really want to move me.
"We were waiting for an ambulance as well, so there was about a 40 to 50 minute wait of me just laying outside, until we made a couple of phone calls to a couple of doctors who advised that it would be okay for me to move.
"[Maxwell's wife] Vini went and got my car and drove it around to the front and two of the guys carried me outside and put me in the back seat.
"That was one of the most painful drives I've ever had in my life trying to hold my foot off the ground, and basically on no painkillers as well."
"I shattered my fibula. So that one was I think the first snap I heard.
"It was snapped in half but it shattered also through the bone. I think there was a bit of a chip off the tibia as well, but I ruptured all the ligaments on top of my foot as well … the syndesmosis ligaments, they're all ruptured."
The freak injury comes at the worst time for Maxwell, who was set to be a key part of Australia's white ball teams and the Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash League.
Maxwell said the manner of the injury made the frustration that much greater.
"I did a good job of it for such an innocuous thing. This is the frustrating thing about it all.
"I've done some dumb things on the field, some dumb things off the field, and I've never even come close to injuring myself, or looking like injuring myself.
"To do something so innocuously — it's just frustrating. It was just a nothing incident.
"Like, the amount of times that I've jumped into a pool and gone 'oh, that was probably a bit more shallow than I thought', and not even a scratch, not even a bruise or anything, not even a rolled ankle.
"To do just something that's just nothing, absolutely nothing it's just a nothing incident, it's just a little bit slippery, and just yeah, all of a sudden there goes a couple of months."