Rookie Matt Hammelmann will have surgery today to repair a fracture to his fibula sustained during the first quarter in the Reserves’ loss to the NT Thunder at The Gabba on Saturday.
“Unfortunately for Matty, he just got it (his ankle) caught under him in a contact injury. He fractured his fibula, it’s quite a serious injury”, Elite Performance Manager Brett Burton told the Bupa Recovery Report.
“He’s having surgery today to pin that.
“Obviously his season is done but he’ll be back for the start of pre-season, importantly, so that won’t hold him up for next year.”
Defender Ryan Harwood is making steady recovery from hip surgery.
“Ryan’s had some ongoing groin issues for quite a number of years now.
“It’s been niggling away and progressively got worse this year”, Burton said.
“We ended up putting him in for hip surgery – that was the driver of it (the groin issues).
“He was operated on two weeks ago, he’ll have a normal off season and be ready to go for the start of pre-season.”
Burton said the Lions may regain forward Josh Green (foot) and Matthew Leuenberger (knee) in the coming weeks.
Green hasn’t played since the Round 14 loss to Fremantle in Perth. An MRI following the match confirmed a stress fracture in his foot. Fortunately, it didn’t require surgery.
Leuenberger has missed the last two matches, after straining his Tib Fib joint (just below the knee) in the loss to Geelong in early August.
Check out the full injury list at the Bupa Health Centre
