MATTHEW Richardson has no doubt Jonathan Brown has plenty of good football ahead of him despite suffering his third facial fracture in 12 months on Wednesday.
Richardson - who suffered two fractured cheekbones of his own during his stellar 282-game career - said Brown's competitive nature would get him back on the park.
The Richmond great retired after tearing his hamstring off the bone inn 2009, and said the soft tissue injuries were more of a mental barrier than the collision ones.
"In a stupid way you'd rather three of those [facial] injuries than three hamstrings," Richardson said.
"The hamstrings and the soft tissue ones are the ones that play on your mind. Browny would know that his body is pretty good, you're not running on your face, you're using your legs.
"He's probably thinking 'my body's good, if I can just get rid of this bad luck I'll be fine'.
"You do three and four hamstrings in a row and you start thinking 'gee, am I going to be able to run properly again?'
"I think if you could ask him what he'd rather have, in a stupid way, he'd say facial injuries."
Brown suffered multiple facial fractures following an accidental knee from Fremantle's Luke McPharlin in round one last year.
He was then involved in a sickening collision with teammate Mitch Clark against Geelong in round 17 that resulted in more surgery.
Since resuming training in September, Brown said he had never been fitter.
But on Wednesday it was third time unlucky, as another teammate, Matt Maguire, accidentally collected Brown's left cheekbone while spoiling in a marking contest.
"I know how competitive he is, " Richardson said.
"You normally finish playing because you can't run and you can't make a contest any more and you can't impact a game.
"It's got nothing to do with that. It's not his legs or his mobility, it's nothing like that and that's what normally ends your career, so I'm certain he wouldn't be thinking that way.
"If he wants to look at it on the positive side, he'd be thinking 'I haven't played a lot in the last 12 months, I've had a lot of wear and tear over the years but I've probably been able to freshen up'.
"He's not going to lose that much fitness. With the injury he's got he'll probably be back running pretty quickly. He'd be thinking 'surely this can't happen again'.
Richardson was dogged by injuries throughout his career, including a fractured cheekbone and eye socket suffered against Adelaide in 2007, and said he "felt" for Brown.
He said it was rare and unlucky to cop three such injuries within 12 months, and although it might play on Brown's mind in the future, he expected the big Lion to get on with the job.
"I had a couple of broken cheekbones in my career and I thought I was unlucky to get them," he said.
"As a marking player you're up in the air a little bit more than you are at ground level. He's been unlucky. On two occasions there it's been a stray knee hitting him, which is unlucky. The one where he went back with the flight (against Geelong) was just courage but the other two were just real unlucky.
"You'd think a guy like [Joel] Selwood, who is at the bottom of every pack, would be more likely to get this sort of injury but that's why it's even more unbelievable for Browny.
"He's such a competitor though. I know he'll be thinking it's not over yet."
Michael Whiting covers AFL news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_mikewhiting
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