David Patrick is a strong believer in fate.

"Everything happens for a reason," is his motto.

And it's a good job really, for if some people had had the year he has had they might well have thrown in the towel.

In January of 2002, while playing for the Canberra Cannons of Australia's National Basketball League, Patrick suffered an injury that put paid to his season.

The point guard was attempting to gain possession of the ball when he suffered damage to his cruciate ligament, an injury that sidelined him for several months and cut short a promising run in the starting line-up.

After battling his way back to fitness, the 26-year-old sought a move away from Australia and in October of last year put pen to paper on a season-long contract with England's Chester Jets - the reigning British Basketball League Champions, Northern Conference winners, National Cup holders and BBL Trophy winners.

As luck would have it the Cannons went bankrupt just a month later, Patrick believing his departure to be a sign that someone was watching over him.

His career seemingly back on track, Patrick headed to the north-west, only to find all was not what it had at first seemed.

Instead of being the first choice in his position, Patrick found himself on the sidelines after just a couple of games when head coach Robbie Peers re-signed US import John Thomas, who had left the club in the summer to sign a lucrative deal in the Israeli League. After Patrick's arrival, Brooklyn-born Thomas was released from his contract and Peers was able to entice the 200 MVP back to the ranks.

Patrick waited until Christmas and then asked for a meeting with Peers after which it was decided he should leave.

Now, two months on, the player's life has come full circle and he is returning to Australia, this time to Melbourne and the Sandringham Sabres of the newly-formed Australian Basketball Association.

It is an opportunity Patrick grabbed with both hands, especially after what had happened in England.

"Basically, I feel that I was just brought in (to Chester) to fill in for one week," he said from the US, where he has been for the past month. "I wasn't really happy with the situation. If the coach had told me that I could have dealt with it better. I got misled but that's the nature of the business I guess in some instances."

As well as the on court promises, Patrick was also told he would have his own house and car as part of the deal. However, they never materialised.

"I am married and he had me in a house with three other guys," he said. "It definitely wasn't the right situation for me or Cassie."

In a bid to find a new club his agent arranged for him to attend a camp in Chicago.

"That was on January 12 and I had scouts from Sweden and Germany come over to watch," he said. "But they weren't willing to pay for my wife to come over there."

As a result Patrick has had to play the waiting game until the right job came along.

"I have been sitting around, waiting for something to pop up," he said. "It's quite a way through the season now in Europe and you have to wait for someone to get hurt or get fired, so I was blessed when this came up.

"Vince Crivelli, who used to be one of my coaches when I was a junior, became a head coach in the ABA. He contacted me to see if I was coming back to Australia at any stage and I said I was out of a job at the moment and was willing to return now if it was feasible."

Patrick said he believed this would turn out to be a good move.

"I have a pretty good relationship with him and I'm sure he will be straight up with me," he said.

The league runs from March until August and so it means that Patrick will be able to be involved from the off. He has kept on top of his fitness and believes before too long he will be in tune with his new team-mates.

"The camp at Chicago was for three or four days and so I was in pretty good shape and while I have been down here I have been back to my college (Southwestern Louisiana), working out with guys over there," he said.

"I think our first game is on March 12. I'm a little bit behind the eight ball because I think they started practice a month or so ago but I should be able to get back up to speed pretty quickly.

"It will certainly be better than when I went to England and got off the plane and played that night. That was the worst situation ever. I didn't have any shoes, I had to borrow some from the coach. It was just a bad deal from the start."

If all goes to plan Patrick will head back to Europe when the ABA season ends.

"It's ideal that the season goes until the end of July because that means we can go to Europe afterwards," he said. "Ideally we like France, Spain or Germany.

"Even if I go to Europe I wouldn't mind continuing to play in Melbourne from March to August, in part because my mother lives here.

Not one to dwell on the past, Patrick is looking to the future with new-found enthusiasm and believes his experiences, though painful at the time, will benefit him in the long run.

"I don't think I learned a lot from a basketball standpoint, but I have learned a lot about how the business works and how you can't trust everybody," he said.

"I know now I have to have everything in writing, rather than just accepting word of mouth, no matter how nice it sounds."