Frank Lowy reveals the full repercussions of A-League grand final fall

Frank Lowy has recounted his “traumatic experience” after his life-threatening fall at last season’s A-League Grand Final.

The Football Federation Australia chairman fell awkwardly as he went towards handing the A-League trophy to Melbourne Victory’s Kevin Muscat and Mark Milligan.

Despite getting up and insisting he was fine, the 84-year-old later discovered his dramatic accident had caused bleeding around his brain while on holiday in Europe.

“About six weeks after my fall, I was in France and I had shown some hesitancy,” Lowy said at the launch of his second biography this week, written by the journalist Jill Margo.

“My left hand was a little bit difficult to handle and so was my left foot. Then I was urged to go to the hospital — but I was very reluctant in a strange country to go to the emergency ward. It was not exactly a piece of cake, but in the end I had to do it.

“They took an x-ray and an MRI and found a haematoma, it was quite serious.

"They told me I had to have an operation — not an emergency but it’s very urgent and you can’t fly home.

“It was a big drama for me and very complicated, to be in a hospital where the nurses don’t speak English and I don’t speak French. I was very, very disturbed and very anxious."

Lowy told the waiting press “all the medical advice is I’m fine” while joking that that his first task of the day had been to climb to the lectern for his speech and “watch those steps”.