This little drama opens with the events that led to Foran slaying Parramatta on Sunday, which began last year in his sleep.
Foran was recovering from his first shoulder operation. One of those painful operations where the cut goes deep and the size of the pain seems to have no connection to the size of the tiny muscle operated on and the recovery seems a long way away.
Foran went home and slept with his arm in a sling and woke in tremendous pain.
He never felt anything like it.
Around him, life was already in chaos.
But the pain ...
What Foran did not know was that sometime during the night, in the wrong sling, he jerked and tore the muscle all over again.
He woke the next morning in a pain that was foreign. Someone had taken a sledgehammer to his shoulder.
Foran had never had this operation before. He thought the pain was normal.
Only painkillers could help and they were sending him batty. Making him tired and the recovery was slow.
Arthur wanted Foran back.
All the advice he got was that Foran should be nearly ready to play. He believed getting Foran back to the field quickly was the best remedy for all that other stuff going on.
It is not an uncommon thought.
What Arthur did not know was that the night Foran slept after that operation he was in the wrong sling for the operation he underwent. He was supposed to be in a sling that locked the arm in place during sleep. It was not the right sling and the muscle tore again.
Only painkillers, a silent curse themselves, saw him through.
That's where it began.
Arthur began insisting he wanted Foran at training. Idle minds are no good for footballers and Arthur did not want Foran at home, with little to do.
Foran resisted, as much because the painkillers were sending him to sleep on the drive down, twice nearly ending in accidents.
It was a spiral neither could break from.
He lasted less than a half of football in his return when the reality of his injury could not be hidden by drugs.
Foran eventually left Parramatta, damaged goods
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