The perils of live television were made apparent on Tuesday morning after a Melbourne football star walked off set during a live interview with ABC News Breakfast.
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Sports presenter Georgie Tunny opened the segment by asking the Melbourne Victory forward Mitch Austin about the how well he expected to do in the upcoming A-league season.
"You're kicking off the season in a pretty difficult fashion," she said. "How do the club, the players, yourself even, deal with the fallout from last season's grand final?"
A nervous-looking Austin admitted bouncing back would be "pretty tough".
"Yeah, um, obviously we've gotta... sorry, I just need to go," he said, before mumbling about needing to go to the bathroom.
A confused Tunny did her best to deal with the unexpected turn of events.
"We've just lost Mitch," she said. "But I'll head back to you, PK [Paul Kennedy] and Virginia, and we'll see what's happening."
Austin could be seen walking across the set just as the camera cut back to the breakfast presenters.
"Ah, there goes Mitch," an amused Trioli exclaimed. "We'll look after Mitch. We'll make sure he's OK."
Ken nedy then saved the day by throwing to the weather.
"We'll catch up with the A-league news a little later on, perhaps," he said.
The breakfast team later clarified that Austin was fine and had suffered from a panic attack.
"I think that he just blanked and then had a bit of a panic attack, but he's OK," Tunny later told viewers. "We had a good chat outside of the studio, so he is all fine and set to star in Melbourne Victory's season opener in the grand final replay against Sydney this weekend."
Soccer fans praised the ABC online for the way the breakfast presenters handled the situation.
"Panic attacks can strike anyone anytime, not funny," one Victory fan tweeted. "Well done ABC in explaining what happened."
Panic attacks can strike anyone anytime, not funny.Well done @abc in explaining what happened,U got my respect @mitchaustin10 #mentalhealth??? James Taylor (@TaylorJim181) October 2, 2017