David Patrick -- Bermuda's only professional basketball star -- has suffered a career break of the worst possible kind.

Patrick, raised on the Island, but now living in Australia, plays for the Canberra Cannons in the National Basketball League.

The 23-year-old is in his first year with the side, having joined them from college in the United States, but is currently sidelined through injury.

Playing against Perth recently, the back-up point guard fell awkwardly and suffered a blow that will keep him out of action until the New Year.

"About two weeks ago I fractured my foot. So I will have to sit out for about the next month or so,'' said the Saltus educated player from his home in Canberra. "I landed on somebody's foot and cracked the bone on the top.'' Patrick says he hates having to watch from the sidelines.

"It's very frustrating. Being my first year I was just getting used to playing in this league,'' he said.

"I was getting a lot more responsibility from my coach and to hurt my foot so early in the season is kind of demoralising.'' Patrick actually continued to play for several weeks before realising the extent of the injury.

"I kept playing on it for about another three weeks after I did it because they gave me a few cortisone injections to try and numb the pain,'' he said.

"So I played three weeks with it cracked and then finally got it X-rayed and found out the extent of the damage.

"They think that playing on it made it worse because they said it looked as if the crack had got a little bigger than it was.'' At present, Patrick is pretty restricted in what he can do to correct the injury.

"I'm doing rehab and mainly just lifting a lot of weights. I can't do too much with my leg because I'm on crutches,'' he said.

He hopes to be back on the court early in January and is hopeful that he will get straight back into the coach's reckoning.

"There is only one other person in my position. So in that respect I should get straight back in the team, it will just be a question of getting my fitness back.'' Patrick, who moved to Australia with his mother, ended up in Canberra via high school in Louisiana and university in Syracuse.

The player said: "I played in the Australian junior team in 1993 and we toured America and I got selected to go to a high school over there for my Year 12. I went to school in Lousiana and then got recruited to go to college.'' Injury set-back apart, Patrick says he is thoroughly enjoying living the life of a professional ball player -- and of course all the trappings.

Although salaries in Australia cannot compare with those earned by the superstars in the US, he admits to having a comfortable lifestyle.

"The minimum in the NBA is about $300,000 whereas here it's around $55,000,'' he said.

"They have a salary cap in the first year so that you stay with the team and don't leave right away, but it's a fair living. "It's a great lifestyle over here but I wouldn't mind going to play in Europe,'' he said.

"I like where I am at the moment and I have a lot more to learn. I would like to get good in this league here first.'' The Cannons are eighth out of the 12 teams in the NBL ladder, having won just two of their 10 games so far this season. But the player said there were mitigating circumstances.

"We have a new coach and we have had seven new players come in. All of us are between 22 and 25 years-old,'' said Patrick, who was the new manager's first recruit. "The coach has a four-year plan and this year is a learning year.'' David Patrick: enjoying life as a basketball pro Down Under, but now sidelined through injury.