The Elijah Hollands saga has continued, with the AFL releasing a statement requesting answers from Carlton after it conducts its review on what went wrong on Thursday.
The AFL statement was released late on Saturday, reading:
"The health and wellbeing of every player is the AFL's highest priority.
"The AFL has today requested Carlton to, once concluded, provide the outcome of its review of the circumstances relating to Elijah Holland's fitness to play in Thursday night's match.
"The AFL will continue to make inquiries with the club in relation to the matter."
Hollands has become the centre of media attention after he suffered what the Blues dubbed a mental health episode during Carlton's clash with Collingwood on Thursday night in front of a crowd of 78,000.
The 23-year-old has been open in the past about his struggles with anxiety and has previously taken time away from the game to work on his mental health.
Hollands was acting in an unusual manner throughout the warm-up and during the game, drawing attention from spectators for his odd behaviour. Carlton has ruled out any chance of substance use by Hollands and is confident the reason behind his behaviour was a mental health episode.
Despite playing 60 per cent game time, Hollands registered only one kick - a dribble along the boundary line- and was rarely seen throughout the match except for flashes of erratic behaviour.
The obvious question the AFL will want answered is why Carlton put Hollands in that position to not only play, but feature for 60 per cent of the match when he clearly did not look fit to feature in the match.
