Dayne Zorko has revealed he will have to play through pain for the remainder of the year but insists his calf injury should not affect his form.
The Lions captain’s training load would have to be managed throughout the season but he does not expect to miss any games.
“It is going to be a work in progress throughout the year,’’ he said.
“Probably next year looks the likely option, talking to the physios and the strength and conditioning coaches it is probably unlikely that this year I can play without any pain.
“But players with pain all the time.
“It is pretty common, it is nothing new, I reckon 90 per cent of players have some niggling injury that they just have to manage.’’
Although training causes discomfort, he said he found in the heat of battle against Geelong on Thursday that he was able play without any awareness of the injury.
“Reaching top speed and that push off at training when that adrenaline is not pumping like it is in a game it can be pretty uncomfortable,’’ he said.
“But during the game I didn’t really feel it that much which is a good sign.’’
The Lions have to spend another week in their NSW hub at Sydney’s Manly beach and Zorko said while there was no doubt players and staff would be missing their families, no one at the club resented the situation they found themselves in.
He said the players had made the most of their environment and were enjoying the extra time spent together.
The restrictions that govern the side at home in Queensland apply in NSW and the players were happy to comply.
“We’re pretty fortunate, we’re on the Manly foreshore, its wonderful and the locals are really nice,’’ he said.
“It’s a nice part of the world to be in.
“You can only go out in pairs, but other than that it is the same sort of stuff we were doing back in Brisbane but just on a tighter schedule.
“We can’t go to cafes or anything, so it’s a walk and that’s about it.”
He said the competitive nature of the players was coming out in a variety of activities, his own personal favourite was table tennis.
“The boys are playing a bit of ping pong, there’s a bit of X-box as well the boys have been all over that, playing Fifa, Play Station Fortnite, Call of Duty I think it’s called,’’ he said.
“I am playing a bit of table tennis and there’s some beautiful places walk, so we’ve been able to pass our time well.’’