North Melbourne could be without one of its biggest stars against Hawthorn on Sunday, with Shaun Higgins and his wife, Heidi, expecting the birth of their first child.
The star midfielder has admirably chosen to attend the birth over playing against the Hawks, should his two worlds collide.
“My priority is the birth,” Higgins told North Media.
“If the baby comes on game-day or the hours around game-time, then I’ll miss but I’ll prepare to play and let Mother Nature run her course.”
Going into the season, Higgins always knew it could be a close call and has had many months to plan. Although the baby isn’t due until next week, the veteran is prepared for an early surprise.
“It’s an easy decision to be honest,” he said.
“It’s one game out of an entire career for something that’s once in a lifetime. It’s so much about supporting Heidi around that time too. The support I need and want to give her far outweighs playing a game.
“We're in the phase where we’re ready to go and up until a few weeks ago, you kind of hope for a few extra weeks because you’re not quite ready, but we’re locked and loaded now and we have everything we need.
“We’re in the countdown, but we’re more than ready.”
Higgins sat down with coach Brad Scott last week to discuss his potential omission.
“He was fully supportive,” Higgins said.
“The great thing about Scotty is his understanding and ability to see things from other people’s point of view. He told me that family always comes first.
“I still think that I’d be very unlucky if I had to make that call, but I’m prepared for it nonetheless.”
A steady head, Higgins doesn’t believe the events of the coming days will distract him, should he get the green light to play.
“I’m sure we’ll have a clearer understanding on Sunday, whether the bay is really close or a still a few days away,” he said.
“If we’re really close but there still hasn’t been any movement, then I’ll prepare to play and wait for the call I guess.
It would be pretty easy for me. If we’ve made the decision for me to go and play, then that’s what I’ll do and my focus would be on the game. If it happened during the warm-up period, then so be it – I’d just deal with it. I just hope the runner does come out to me during the game with a mobile phone,” he said laughing.
“Even when we’re at the club now, I don’t have my phone with me at all – it sits in my locker. Heidi has the phone numbers of some staff here and if she needs to get in touch urgently if it’s game-on, then she’ll call one of them and I’ll get the message pretty quickly I’m sure. That will be the same on game day.”
From now until Sunday, there’ll be much still up in the air. The only thing for certain is the name, should the addition to the Higgins’ household be a girl.
“We don’t have a name if it’s a boy yet. I’d be surprised if it was a boy for some reason.”
