Aussie Footy Star's Corrective Eye Surgery Sidelines Player For LA Exhibition Game

Key forward plyer Barry Hall, of the Sydney Swans, will miss out on Monday's, (16th Jan 2006), AFL exhibition game in Los Angeles, despite rain threatening to turn the University of California field into a mud bowl.

The game, one of the highlights of the G'Day LA festival to promote Australia in the US, is sold out.Five thousand spectators are expected to fill the University of California, Los Angeles' (UCLA) Intramural Field, a large piece of manicured grass that is without permanent spectator seating and is used for numerous sports.

Hall is still recovering from corrective eye surgery he had before Christmas. He was short-sighted before the operation, meaning he had trouble seeing the ball when it was more than one metre away from him.

Hall said his eyesight was now perfect, although he is still adjusting to the change.

"Just judging the football, it's a lot more clearer and I've been doing a lot of work on judgment and taking marks, Hall said. "The doctors said it would take a bit of time to get used to and it has."

Hall, 28, said he coped with poor eyesight on the football field by watching other players.

"I just judged where the guys were running and presumed they had the footy," Hall said.

"There's been a lot of talk about like 'What are you going to do now that you can actually see the footy?'

"But, to be honest, I don't think it will make that much of a difference."