Sam Skinner will have surgery in Melbourne next week to repair his ruptured left anterior cruciate ligament.

Scans on Friday confirmed he would require a full knee reconstruction. Skinner hyperextended his knee at training, the day after he had been named to debut.

“It was very unfortunate for Sam,” said Lions Head of Physiotherapy Shane Lemcke.

“He’d completed the whole training session and was doing a bit of extra bag marking practice at the end and landed awkwardly. He didn’t think much of it at the time but unfortunately in that incident had injured his ACL again.

“He’ll see a surgeon in Melbourne at the end of this week and is likely to have surgery the week after.”

Lions Health Centre: Injury List

Fellow big-man Jonathan Freeman has suffered another injury setback in the NEAFL.  

Freeman saw an ophthalmologist on Monday to assess an eye injury sustained in a marking contest in Saturday’s NEAFL match against Aspley.

Freeman has blood in his eyeball and is unable to do any exercise until the blood resolves – he is expected back after the NEAFL bye.

“Jonathan copped a poke to the eye and unfortunately he’s got a bit of blood in his eyeball which means he won’t be available this week and can’t really do too much activity.

“It should only really be a one week injury.”

Marco Paparone had successful surgery last week on his hamstring. The 22-year-old has had ongoing problems with the tendon in his hamstring this season.

“It was pretty extensive surgery on his tendon that will keep him out for about 12-16 weeks. Hopefully it will allow him to have an uninterrupted pre-season,” Lemcke said.

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