Why Bont’s injury might be worse than the Bulldogs are saying
Three-time AFLW premiership player and physio Libby Birch has cast doubt on Marcus Bontempelli’s injury recovery timeline and raised questions over the Western Bulldogs’ strength and conditioning team after several players sustained injuries since the end of last season.
Marcus Bontempelli left the field early in a pre-season clash with Hawthorn. Scans revealed a “complex” calf injury.Credit: Getty Images
“As a physio, looking at their off-season, I’ve analysed their injury trends, and it seems to me like they’ve got a massive soft-tissue injury trend happening there,” Birch said on The Age’s Real Footy Podcast.
“Obviously, their loads have been too high for a substantial amount of time, and we’re just seeing this bulk of soft-tissue injuries. So their high-performance team will be under a lot of pressure.”
Injured Bulldogs include Aaron Naughton, who injured his calf shortly before Christmas, defender Liam Jones, who suffered a significant hamstring strain in February, and midfielder Adam Treloar, who was sidelined after a late-January calf strain. Defender Jason Johannisen will also miss several weeks of the season after undergoing surgery for a hamstring strain.
Captain Marcus Bontempelli was ruled out for at least six weeks when he sustained a calf injury in Thursday’s practice match against Hawthorn.
Birch said she was particularly worried about Bontempelli’s injury, which was described as a “complex” calf strain, believing it could involve the skipper’s plantaris muscle as well as his tendon.
“That is a concern for me. They’ve said six weeks, but I think we’re looking more like eight for Bontempelli.”
The Bulldogs declined a request for comment.
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St Kilda are one of the other clubs to have their share of injury woes this pre-season. But the Saints received welcome news on Monday when Mitchito Owens was officially cleared of major damage to his shoulder.
The Saints said experts had examined Owens’ AC joint, and ruled he will not require surgery and remained a chance to be selected for the round one match against the Crows in Adelaide.
“It was a great result to get the all-clear from specialists this morning,” St Kilda’s executive general manager of football David Misson said.
“Mitch is already feeling much better, but we’ll still have to monitor his progress over the next two weeks as we lead into the start of our season.”
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