Pies' Defender Might Miss 10 Weeks With Foot Injury

The Age

Thursday March 13, 2008

By Michael Gleeson

THE importance of 33-year-old Collingwood veteran Shane Wakelin's body holding together for another season has assumed greater significance after his back-line teammate, Simon Prestigiacomo, had foot surgery yesterday that potentially will sideline him for most of the first half of the season.

To avert surgery, an alternative therapy for his foot had been tried, but, after more than a week, it had not responded adequately.

"We had hoped that treatment might save him from being operated on but it didn't improve, so he has gone under the knife," Collingwood football manager Geoff Walsh said. "It will set him back anywhere between four and 10 weeks, depending on how he recovers."

Prestigiacomo traditionally has been slow to heal and return from injury.

The injury means that Wakelin is the only experienced key Magpie defender. Slightly under-sized, emerging young players such as Harry O'Brien and Nick Maxwell have been pressed into filling key-position roles in the past.

Ruckman Josh Fraser has a jarred finger but remains available for round one.

At the Western Bulldogs, luckless young key-position player Tom Williams has broken down again. This time, the talented former first-round draft pick has damaged a tendon in his quad muscle.

He was injured while running at training on Monday night. Williams only just had managed to play half a game for Williamstown seconds at the weekend in his first practice match of the pre-season.

The initial fear was that he had badly injured his adductor muscle and would be out for up to 10 weeks, but a scan yesterday allayed the worst fears.

"He was probably unlikely to be ready for round one, but he was certainly in our calculations for the first couple of rounds, so this is another setback. It is terribly disappointing for Tom because he has not had a good run with injury," Bulldogs football manager James Fantasia said.

? Hawthorn's stocks in defence have been thinned after injury forced experienced backman Danny Jacobs to announce his retirement yesterday after 126 games (81 at Essendon).

The 27-year-old has been troubled constantly by hip problems, having endured eight operations in the past three years. He was expected to resume this year, after surgery at the end of 2007, but a recent setback prompted him to call it quits.

"It's just a little disappointing that I didn't get to play more footy," Jacobs said. "It wasn't through a lack of trying, I put myself out there, it just didn't go my way."

© 2008 The Age

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