Gold Coast SUNS key defender Rory Thompson has endured a setback in his efforts to return to AFL Football.
Thompson was playing his second game back from an ACL injury when he had to leave the field and was unable to return.
General Manager Football Operations Jon Haines provided an update on Thompson for the Round 13 Qscan Injury Update.
“He had an incident in the game that required him to come from the ground and subsequently we’ve had some scans taken,” Haines said.
“He’s got a partial tear to his ACL in his non reconstructed (right) knee.”
“It’s an unusual one given it’s a partial tear, so we just want to make sure we get all the right opinions before we make a decision on the best way forward.”
Although disappointed at the time, Haines said Thompson was now focussing his efforts onto the best way back to full fitness.
“Rory was tracking really well; the reconstructed knee was in terrific shape and physically he was in really good condition.
“He’s obviously disappointed and frustrated but once he gets a clear indication of what the path is forward, he’ll be able to put all his energy into that and we’ll make sure we support him with that journey.”
Haines also spoke to how important good availability across the entire list had been in recent weeks.
“It’s a credit to everyone in the football program, the availability we’ve had this year,”
“When we undertook the reset a couple of years ago, the high performance and medical area is one that we invested a lot of time and energy into as we know how important good availability is from a development and performance perspective.”
