A KNEE injury that forced Geelong midfielder Sam Menegola to be a late withdrawal from Sunday’s win over North Melbourne is worse than first thought.
Coach Chris Scott has revealed Menegola, who had played 50 consecutive games before missing the clash with the Roos, will need surgery and is unlikely to be seen on the field until after Geelong’s bye in mid-June.
“We’re hopeful that could turnaround pretty quickly – in a matter of weeks,” Scott said.
“But with our mid-season bye coming up, it would be unlikely he’d play AFL before that.
“We’ve got – including this game (against the Western Bulldogs) – four games before that bye.”
Scott says it’s not related to the knee issue Menegola battled during the pre-season.
“He has a cartilage issue that can go from feeling fine one minute to not so good the next,” Scott said. “A little flap of cartilage that can only be fixed via surgical means, but it’s keyhole surgery.
“Hopefully it’s a really light touch, which means he’ll be back in a period of weeks.
“In a way, it’s almost wound healing as opposed to the actual issue.
“But they’re confident they can fix that problem really quickly.”
Veteran defender Lachie Henderson and young midfielder Quinton Narkle are also set to miss around a month of football.
Scans have confirmed Henderson has a partially ruptured his plantar fascia, while Narkle has a hamstring issue.
Geelong is confident captain Joel Selwood (soreness), rookie Tom Atkins (hip) and All-Australian defender Tom Stewart (neck) will be right to play, while again confirming Gary Rohan (concussion) hasn’t been ruled out.
Scott has labelled as “irresponsible” some sections of the media that questioned Stewart returning to the field against North Melbourne.
“It’s poor journalism, and it’s just wrong,” Scott added.
“That being said, Gary Rohan did have concussive symptoms and was ruled out very quickly once he came off the ground.
“But, as you know, that doesn’t rule him out for football in subsequent weeks necessarily.
“So, we’re at the position now, in the week, where I think we’d have a really good idea if he wasn’t going to play, and I’d give you that information if we had it at the moment.
“But, he has hasn’t been ruled out, and the signs are pretty good. But things can change dramatically in a 48-hour period.”
Twitter: @tom_king79
