Markets 
The wife of football legend Tony Modra says her husband might not be “the same good-looking” man he once was, but that he was “going okay” after his cattle truck crashed into a tree.
Modra, 57, was driving his truck along Range Road, Back Valley, about 10 kilometres west of Victor Harbor in South Australia on Thursday evening when he crashed, suffering serious injuries.
Modra, who owns a cattle farm at Waitpinga, south of Victor Harbor, was the sole occupant of the cattle truck involved. The 57-year-old was flown to Flinders Medical Centre and treated for serious injuries.
Speaking on his Triple M breakfast show on Friday morning, close friend and fellow Adelaide Crows star Mark Ricciuto said he had spoken to Modra’s wife, Erica, who wanted to address speculation as to how the crash occurred.
“It was extremely windy as everyone knows yesterday, and, a complete freak accident, a tree got uprooted and fell across the road right in front of him as he was driving on the correct side of the road and hit his windscreen,” Ricciuto said.
“Just an absolute freak accident. He didn’t veer off [the road], didn’t even get time to try and avoid it. He was doing the right thing and [the tree] hit the windscreen and that’s how it happened, so just to end the speculation out there.”
Erica Modra told Ricciuto that she wanted to share her gratitude for the first responders who “saved his life”. She said she wanted to thank the emergency services both at the site of the crash and those who stabilised him at the Victor Harbor hospital before the intensive care team took over.
“It’s pretty amazing that he’s got through it,” Ricciuto said. “She said to me just before, he’s not gonna be the same good-looking Tony Modra. He’s gonna have some scars.
“And I said, well, ‘he can be like us for once instead of being good-looking as he always has been’.
“So he’s going okay, and we’re fingers crossed he’s gonna get through it okay at the moment.
“It wasn’t a good place to be by the sounds of it, and they got through it and … he’s in a reasonable position at this stage.”
Modra, one of the most popular players of the 1990s renowned for his high-flying marks, played 165 AFL games, kicking 588 goals. He played 118 of those with the Crows, booting 440 goals – the second-most in club history behind Taylor Walker – before kicking 148 goals in just 47 games for Fremantle.
Nicknamed “Godra”, Modra enjoyed a breakout year in 1993 when he booted 129 goals and was described as “bigger than Elvis” as arguably the most recognisable, popular personality in South Australia. Gary Ablett sr won the Coleman Medal that year, followed by Modra and the Hawks’ Jason Dunstall.
Modra was twice named All-Australian, won the mark of the year crown three times, and kicked goal of the year in 1995.
On Thursday evening, South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas expressed his support for the Modra family after hearing the news.
“Mods is an SA icon who has never forgotten where he came from. Down to earth and just a really good bloke,” he wrote in a social media post.
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