Hadley ruptures ACL again

[Danny]

Tragic news for the young Lion. Another season long rehab ahead.

Hadley needs another reco
2:39:10 PM Sun 19 March, 2006
Scott Spits
Sportal for afl.com.au

Scans have confirmed that Brisbane Lions midfielder Richard Hadley requires a second knee reconstruction within the space of 12 months.

The 22-year-old ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in the same knee playing for the Suncoast Lions on Saturday, just over 12 months after he first suffered the season-ending knee injury during a practice match in Melbourne.

A premiership player in 2003 in just his fourth AFL match, Hadley played a further 23 games in 2004 but wasn't able to add to his games tally last year.

Hadley hurt the knee again in the opening minutes of the Suncoast Lions' match against Zillmere on Saturday afternoon - the curtain-raiser to Brisbane's NAB Challenge clash against Collingwood at Carrara.

It was a forgettable day on the injury front for the Lions after star midfielder Nigel Lappin suffered an ankle injury and limped off during the second quarter of Brisbane's 17-point victory over the Magpies.

Brisbane medical staff won't have a diagnosis on the seriousness of Lappin's ankle injury until Monday.

After the match, Lions coach Leigh Matthews said Lappin's ankle was not broken and the club was hoping it was only a minor injury.

"No one knows quite yet," Matthews said.

"They're a little optimistic. They're hoping it might be relatively short-term but it's all guess work until they work out exactly what's happened and how it reacts.

"He'll have x-rays to determine if there's any damage that you can't see."

[injuryupdate]

Still too many re-ruptures in the AFL of reconstructions. The surgeons need to do some more work on this. I would hope that eventually the re-rupture rate can get down as low as 5%, but it is consistently 10-15% in the AFL. Luke Darcy and Hadley will keep this record up.

[Danny]

A very good article from lions.com.au.

Hadley happy to let mind wander
1:22:46 PM Tue 21 March, 2006
lions.com.au

Young Lions midfielder Richard Hadley plans to turn to life outside of football, as he prepares for a second knee reconstruction in the space of 12 months.

After missing all of 2005 with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, the luckless Hadley suffered exactly the same injury in only his second game back - playing for the Suncoast Lions against Zillmere in Saturday night's curtain-raiser at Carrara.

While disappointed by the prospect of another 12 months on the sidelines, he says he won't be moping around and will immerse himself in the non-football related aspects of life, including his university studies.

"I'll just be getting involved with other things - last year I got into the gym and really worked hard on my strength," Hadley said of his immediate future at a media conference this morning.

"It was really handy last year having that time line and that goal of getting back before the end of the season - that was really in my mind. So I think I'll have to sit down and think of a few more goals and things to deal with, not having that drive to get back by the end of the year.

"I'll just get busy, talk to people like Rehny (assistant coach Shaun Rehn) and share how I'm feeling."

Rehn, who made the move from West Adelaide to become a Lions assistant for 2006, could play an important part in Hadley's rehabilitation. As coach Leigh Matthews pointed out, the two-time All-Australian and Adelaide premiership ruckman is perhaps the one person around the club qualified to understand what Hadley is going through.

"It's not so much how I can help Richard - there's one person who can probably help Richard and that's Shaun Rehn," Matthews explained.

"He had three knee reconstructions and came back to play three years of good senior footy later on. You can imagine three reconstructions takes up a fair amount of years and he played good footy after the third one.

'It's a major setback but I think you can mope around for a day or two after and then say "Where do I go from here?" Richard has basically done that - where he goes from here is that, yes, he has to start the cycle again but there's a very good chance that his career will be okay.

"It's a major obstacle but you can only take life the way it is and then move on from it. That's what he's doing - it's going to be frustrating, it's going to be disappointing and I reckon he's going to feel like kicking the cat a fair bit over the next 12 months.

"But he's keen to keep going and we're keen for him to keep going. You just have to keep persevering which is obviously what you're left with when something goes wrong."

While Hadley has immediate plans to turn his thoughts slightly away from football, his long-term goals remain the same as they were this time last year - to resume the highly promising career in which he seemed set to cement a permanent place in the Lions' strong midfield.

"I'm only still early 20s so there is no question about not wanting to get out there again. It's just (a case of) do your time, get through the rehab and think about that later in the year," Hadley said.

"It (the rehab) might be a little bit different. It was pretty aggressive last year because I had the hint of maybe getting back for the end of the season. This year might be a little bit aggressive and take that full 12 months."

The 22-year-old said he knew straight away on Saturday that something was again amiss with his left knee - but put the disappointing reoccurrence down to plain bad luck.

"The original movement, I just heard a pop - it wasn't painful but it just didn't feel too good.," he said.

"I got up and continued for a little while but I could feel that something was going wrong. I went off and they suspected it was the ACL again.

"It (the knee) was definitely ready. I was doing similar movements six months ago and it's just a luck thing. You can't do anything about it."

[Footypunter]

I am still amazed at the number of re-ruptures.

And as for yesterday's Sunday Herald Sun Footy Guide listing Hadley as the Lions saviour this year (among many other errors) they should all be fired.

[Footypunter]

Brad Smith lining up at FF for West Coast this year was another good one.

How do these people have jobs?

[Luke]

What do you suggest the Orthopods do about it? Thicker grafts or different graft sites? Maybe 10-15% is the best its going to get for a sport such as Aussie Rules. Maybe more blaim can be placed on rehabilitation rather than the surgery. Surely the type and degree of rehab it just as important, if not more. On the other hand though, they are on the big bucks, more than the physio who does the rehab anyway.