CARLTON’S Nic Newman and Zac Fisher might be sidelined until after the AFL’s planned return date due to injuries suffered in the Blues’ season opener against Richmond.
Newman will have surgery after dislocating his elbow while Fisher might be in a moon boot for a month with a syndesmosis injury.
The AFL season has been suspended until at least May 31 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We had a decision to make (on Newman) as to whether we did surgery or not and, given the break in AFL, we decided to get surgery on that lateral ligament in his elbow,” director of high performance Andrew Russell told Carlton’s website.
“We feel like it’s going to be an eight-10 week injury. So he should be back maybe when we resume or very soon after we resume.
“The good thing is he’ll only miss running for a week so he won’t lose any physical conditioning at all.”
Fisher was injured when a Richmond player fell on his ankle, with the Blues opting against surgery.
“(Syndesmosis injuries) can be quite challenging to manage, but we’ve decided to go conservative and not undertake surgery on this,” Russell said.
“So he’ll be in a boot for two-four weeks and then we’ll get him going and he should be very close to resuming when we get going.
“He might play or it might be in the first few weeks after we resume.”
Key forward Charlie Curnow recently had wires taken out of his knee, allowing him to lift his strength training, but Russell conceded his return date was unknown.
“He’s at home and he’s doing a good block of strength work at home,” he said.
“And how quickly he progresses is unknown but now we’re at a point where we can actually get some good work done with him.”
Ruckman Matthew Kreuzer – who was also injured in round one – had surgery last week on his fifth metatarsal.
© AAP 2020
