Medically retired AFL youngster Aiden O’Driscoll is refusing to sign documents that will end his dream of playing football again and is seeking more opinions and brain scans in a bold bid to make an incredible comeback to the game he loves.

The third member of his family to enter the AFL behind brother Nathan and sister Emma at Fremantle, Aiden was badly concussed during Western Bulldogs training in January 2024.

O’Driscoll met with the AFL’s Independent Medical Concussion Panel in May last year and was advised “to retire from contact sports in the interests of his long-term health and wellbeing”.

The league has placed an added emphasis on concussion amid former players taking legal action over the impact of head injuries during their careers and the discovery of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in some ex-players’ brains after they passed away.

O’Driscoll joined players such as West Coast pair Brad Sheppard and Daniel Venables, Melbourne’s Angus Brayshaw and Collingwood’s Nathan Murphy in being forced to quit the game due to concussion.

Those men won AFL premierships, but O’Driscoll never got the chance to play a game because he was in his first season on an AFL list.

The 19-year-old, who grew up in Northam, has moved back to Perth but unlike other medical retirees, hasn’t experienced the debilitating symptoms — such as constant headaches — which impact on quality of life.

He has been offered a financial payout as compensation for not playing but won’t sign those forms until he gets another brain scan to learn if micro bleeds have healed.

“I’ve been to a specialist and he reckons I’m completely fine to come back. He said because I’m so young, the brain heals by itself and it has enough reserve. If I was to cop another concussion, he reckons it would be completely fine,” O’Driscoll told The Sunday Times.

“There’s other opinions that reckon not to play. Obviously the AFL want to cover their arse as well because they don’t want anyone to sue, which is fair enough.

“I haven’t signed anything off. There’s a couple of payouts on the cards. I could sign up to them and then it would be all over. It says I won’t be able to play at any level again if I sign those.

“If I don’t sign them, I could play. I could play right now. Some opinions say I can. Some opinions say I can’t, so at the moment I am just holding off.”

O’Driscoll has had advice that the micro bleeds in his brain could heal due to his youth. But the AFL won’t let him play with the micro bleeds.

He has been recommended to visit a Melbourne-based specialist who helped to reduce debilitating concussion symptoms in multiple retired AFL players, and then get another brain scan.

He hasn’t had a brain scan for more than months, but the Bulldogs have advised O’Driscoll that he is no longer eligible to receive funds for additional scans, so he is considering his options.

“I want to see if it has healed,” O’Driscoll said.

“If there’s a way to get them healed, I’d be back in no time. That’s what I want to do before I call it quits. I’m going to live with regrets if I don’t see this guy and don’t get another scan. I need to know.

“There are no symptoms. That’s the bad part. That’s the problem. I’ve never had any symptoms or anything. It’s almost like I’ve been praying every day for something to happen for me to get back to playing football whether it is local, WAFL or any league.

“Just the fact that it’s all (been) taken away and I can never play footy again, that’s the hard part.

“Seeing my brother and sister be at the AFL level as well, I just want to get back out there. It seems a bit weird that I won’t be able to play footy again when I’m watching the game and I see all these concussions and these blokes are allowed to keep playing.

“It’s my first concussion. It just doesn’t seem right. It’s a weird one to swallow. I feel completely fine. I honestly feel like I could go out there right now, without even being fully fit and kick a couple of goals in the WAFL.”

O’Driscoll will attend Sunday’s game between the Bulldogs and Fremantle at Optus Stadium to cheer on his ex-Bulldogs teammates and his brother at the Dockers.

He is also keeping involved in football by working as a runner for the Perth Football Club. He said it had been difficult to adjust to no longer being a footballer.

“It sounds weird, but only professional athletes will understand. Once you’re out of the system, no one really texts you. That’s just the industry,” he said.

“Some days are hard, and some days are unreal. You’ve just got to keep positive and keep yourself busy. When you’re not busy, the train of thought comes back and you just reminisce about things that you shouldn’t.

“It’s a good thing to think positive. What’s the next option? What life brings, you never know. I’ve been hitting the gym a lot. That’s good for the mental health. If I’ve got nothing to do for the day, I just go to the gym for a couple of hours and pump some iron. It makes you feel good about yourself.”

Blessed with pace, he has also committed to chasing an athletic career if he never gets the chance to play football again.

O’Driscoll has a 100m personal best of 10.6 seconds during training and has set himself the goal of representing Australia.

“That’s the long-term goal,” O’Driscoll said. “Short-term is to just enjoy it, but I definitely want to work my way up. I know what I’m capable of. I know I’ve got pace to burn.

“On the footy field, that was my best asset. It’s a different type of training. It’s literally just sprint-focused, whereas in AFL it’s about a lot of repeat efforts.

“I am pretty fast. My best time is 10.6 at training. That was last year. If I grind for this year, I reckon I could get down to 10.4. That’s a big difference.

“I believe that nothing is impossible. I’m from a country town and made the big league. I’ve made a professional sport already. Anything is possible. I’m willing to put in the work. I’ll just keep a positive mindset, keep an open mind and I reckon I can get there.”