My body had held up really well throughout the entire pre-season training period until the week before Round 1 when I strained my quad in a run-of-the-mill session.
It wasn’t anything too major, particularly when you compare it to what happened to Browny and Stakes in the first game, but has been enough to keep me out of the first month of the season.
The frustrating part about quads, and any soft tissue injury for that matter, is that they can come back to haunt you if you don’t get them 100% right.
So while there might be times when I feel well enough to get out there, the last thing you want is to do push the envelope too far, do it again, and be out for another couple of months.
As it stands now, I’m hoping to play in about a week or so.
We’ve copped a few unfortunate injuries to our big blokes already this year with Ryan Lester the latest guy to go down for an extended period of time with ligament damage in his foot.
I’ve been really impressed with how Ryan has been going, particularly his efforts down back against Melbourne back in Round 3 at the MCG. He might only be 18 and played only three AFL games, but he gave the team plenty of flexibility given he can slot into a number of areas.
As a whole, I think our backline is operating really well. So much so that I am starting to worry about how myself and Josh Drummond are going to fit in once we’re fit and ready to go.
Big ‘Rog’ Merrett is in great form at full-back and Jed Adcock and Ash McGrath are really giving the team some drive from defence.
One of the newest additions is Pearce Hanley who really seems to have found a position in the back six. We might have trouble understanding that Irish accent of his at times, but he’s taken more marks than any other guy in the team and has plenty of creative flair.
It will be a bit of a pity I won’t get to line up against my former side this Thursday night.
I actually missed our match last year through injury as well, so haven’t had the opportunity to go up against the Saints in an official game yet.
We know that they’re a quality outfit and will be fired up after copping a bit of attention in the Melbourne papers lately. But all the boys are equally as keen to get their season on track with our first win.
