Dajka seeks help after hospital visit

Australian former keirin world champion Jobie Dajka says he has been suffering depression and 'self-medicating' with alcohol since his expulsion from the Australian Olympic team last year. Dajka is due to face a disciplinary hearing of Australian Cycling on Thursday after allegedly assaulting track coach Martin Barras, but Dajka says his problems go deeper than a moment of lost temper.

Dajka checked into Adelaide's Lyell McEwin hospital at the weekend, using the provisions of Australia's Mental Health Act to admit himself for treatment. He told Adelaide's The Advertiser newspaper, "I've had some mental trauma. The booze has been a way out for me. I need help. I definitely need help. I can't just keep getting on the booze. I've got to straighten my life out."

Dajka's recent troubles began two weeks ago when he was involved in a fight with another member of the Australian track team after a drunken night out. A few days later Dajka allegedly attacked Barras after a counseling session dealing with his attitude and behaviour for the previous five months in which Dajka was told he would be suspended from the team for three months.

"I just snapped," Dajka told the Adelaide Sunday Mail. "I basically grabbed him by the throat and pushed him towards the white board. I went away, came back, and he said a couple of things to me and I basically pushed him over."

After an initial disciplinary hearing over that incident, Dajka told journalists that he was considering leaving cycling, and that the sport was "drug-ridden" and "corrupt."

Now Dajka and his agent Kerry Ruffels are conceding that the 23-year-old has problems that go beyond a couple of unfortunate incidents.

"It's been going on since the Olympics," Dajka told The Advertiser. Dajka was sent home from the Australian Olympic squad last year after being found to have misled the Anderson enquiry into Mark French's allegations of drug at the Australian Institute of Sport facility in Adelaide.

"I never really recovered from that," he said. "I was never offered any counseling to help me through that period. It was basically 'get out, dog'."

Dajka said he was working with a sports psychologist to deal with his alcohol problem, and that the same psychologist is treating him for depression, but denied he had a drinking addiction. He was prescribed anti-depressants and valium about three weeks ago, but denied reports he was suffering a nervous breakdown.

"I wouldn't say 'breakdown'. It's just hard to come to (terms with) the fact that I've been dreaming of these (Olympic) moments since I was five years old and now, if Thursday's outcome goes where I'm sure it's going, it's probably going to be over," he said.

Kerry Ruffels, Dajka's agent and advisor, says Dajka's career is less of a concern right now than his mental health. Ruffels told The Australian he hoped Thursday's hearing would take the state of Dajka's health into account.

"He's not well and I have to hope the sport acknowledges that, accepts it, and puts a penalty in place which takes that into account," said Ruffels.

Ruffels suggested at last week's disciplinary hearing that Dajka should be given a six-month ban with any further period to be suspended.

Dajka says he will leave the sport if he is banned for more than a year. "I've said to myself, if it's a year then I'll be back. I'll spend a year working on myself and come back as the old Jobie Dajka, he said. "But if it's any more than that, I'll hang it up for good."