Melbourne jogger has emergency surgery after horrific kangaroo attack

Debbie Urquhart recovering from the horrifying attack. Source: Supplied

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES

A Melbourne jogger has had emergency surgery after she was ripped, kicked and mauled by a rogue kangaroo.

Templestowe personal trainer Debbie Urquhart was ferociously attacked by a 2m-high male roo at 6am on Saturday while jogging towards the Candlebark running track near Watties Rd.

The 54-year-old said the kangaroo repeatedly kicked her on the right side of her body, ripped her clothes and "threw me around like a rag doll".

Urquhart played dead in an effort to stop the attack and escaped out of the paddocks moments after the kangaroo ran away.

She then ran about 500m to her Monckton Rd home, screaming and covered in blood.

Gashes on Debbie's right arm show the ferocity of the attack. Source: Supplied

Husband Robert covered her in towels and rushed her to the emergency department at Austin Hospital in Heidelberg.

"He ripped me to pieces," Urquhart said.

"He just kept on kicking into me and I was trying to crawl away.

"He left me for a bit and I thought he was going to come back and kill me."

Urquhart miraculously escaped without any broken bones and was released from hospital on Sunday afternoon.

She narrowly avoided plastic surgery but needed 20 stitches in her right upper arm, 10 stitches in her right shoulder, and five stitches in three places on her buttocks, along with several other nasty wounds.

Urquhart says memories of the horror attack are seared in her mind.

"Every time I close my eyes its pretty vivid, it's horrible," she said.

"If he had got to my stomach, I could have been killed," she said.

Urquhart said she was determined to get over the attack as soon as possible and was planning to go back to work immediately.

She said her personal fitness saved her from being killed.

"I walked again yesterday afternoon as soon as I got back home from hospital," she said.

But she said she wasn't going to run near the walking track and the attack was a warning to nearby residents to be wary of kangaroos.