- Canberra star was at teammate’s house for dinner
- Freak accident saw olive oil bottle explode
- Hoping to return for the Raiders next week
Canberra Raiders star Albert Hopoate has revealed the horrifying extent of his burned arm suffered in a freak BBQ explosion while having dinner with a teammate.
The former New South Wales Blues star suffered the burns before Canberra’s round 4 game against Cronulla when an olive oil bottle caught fire and exploded at his teammate Corey Harawira-Naera’s house.
In a staggering show of bravado, the outside back tried to return to training the next day before being ruled out for several weeks to recover.
Speaking for the first time since the incident, Hopoate told News Corp that he considered himself lucky despite the extensive burns on his arm.
‘I’m lucky, it could have got my face, my eyes, who knows?’ he said.
‘The pain was pretty bad. I went straight to the doctor and he patched it up.
‘I’m pretty lucky, that’s for sure. Someone left some olive oil too close to the barbecue and the can exploded in flames.
‘That photo you have was a couple of days after it happened.
Canberra Raiders star Albert Hopoate has shared the extent of the burns on his arm from the freak accident involving a BBQ and an olive oil bottle that caught fire
Hopoate is hoping to make a miraculous recovery and return for the Raiders next week
The incident occured while Hopoate was at teammate Corey Harawira-Naera’s house
‘It’s not pretty. Lucky it didn’t get infected and I’m not in any pain.
‘I’ve been back to training and can catch and pass a footy again.
‘I’m all good and hoping to play next week.’
His famous footy player father John Hopoate had initially made light of the incident before admitting his son was very lucky to escape without more serious injuries.
‘I always told him he was a bad cook – he’s tried to cook his own arm,’ he said at the time.
‘He takes after his mum [Brenda]. She’s the worst cook in the world.
‘In all seriousness, he was at Corey’s house when one of those spray oil cans at the back of a barbecue blew up. He suffered some pretty bad burns. It was frightening.
‘He’s lucky it only burnt his arm and not his face.’
Raider coach Ricky Stuart was also grateful Hopoate’s injuries were not more serious.
‘It’s such an unfortunate incident,’ he said.
‘Albert has been very consistent and solid for us with his performances at the start of the season. He won’t be out for long.
‘The doc wants to make sure the burns properly recover. You don’t want to risk him getting any further infection. Albert was in today and wanted to train and do the session. Sometimes you need to pull players back and [protect] them from themselves.
‘Albert’s a great bloke and a big part of our squad.’
