Footy is apparently much harder on the knees than ispraying, although we are hardly the experts when it comes to either.
Our infrequent encounters with the Sherrin found us nursing a broken nose at one time and our praying is generally uttered while running and simultaneously saying, “God, if you get us out of this the one time, we promise never to do it again.”
Isabel Huntington has footy related knee issues and recent scans indicated that the Western Bulldogs’ AFLW star might require her third reconstruction in a little over two years.
This time, it is her right knee that blew up on her during training for the 2019 AFLW Premiership competition. That knee was rebuilt in early 2018, February, while it was her left knee that experienced a torn ACL in September of 2016.
She was a former no. 1 draft pick and was back in training in an attempt to be ready for Round 1 of the upcoming season. She played part of two games in 2018 and was highly competent, but at just 19 years of age, she might have to deal with the reality that her body, at least her knees, are not up to the rigours of AFLW footy.
Like Sam Docherty of the Carlton Blues, Huntington seems to have been born under a bad sign for some reason or reasons.
She may be able to avoid surgery this time around and the Western Bulldogs will update her condition once further tests are conducted, but it is painful to see someone of her young age struck down while pursuing a dream and something of which most of us can only dream.
Knee reconstruction surgery and rehabilitation is an Achilles heel for athletes who participate in contact sports and those treatments do not include any sort of guarantee. The truly amazing aspect is that players will endure these sorts of setbacks and come back, seemingly without fear of experiencing a reoccurrence.
