Sports

Joe Daniher out for at least a month with osteitis pubis

Out-of-form Essendon star forward Joe Daniher will miss at least the next month of football, with the club confirming he has osteitis pubis.

The debilitating groin injury was picked up on scans that Daniher had on Monday after he continued to experience soreness throughout the early stages of the season.

Club physical performance manager Justin Crow admitted on Tuesday that the injury had been holding Daniher back from full training since the beginning of pre-season.

“Going right back at the very end of last season, Joe had some groin pain,” Crow said.

“We gave him some time off and rest for the off-season then a strengthening program and a progressive rehabilitation and build-up throughout the pre-season, to the point where he was up and playing games at the start of the year.

“Unfortunately on the back of a compression incident against Fremantle (in round two) the condition has raised its head again."

Advertisement

The next month is a crucial one for the Bombers. After Saturday's clash with arch rivals Carlton at the MCG, they play top-four aspirants Geelong and Greater Western Sydney before the Dreamtime match against reigning premiers Richmond.

But there's no guarantee from the Bombers that Daniher will be back after that.

“That will be a minimum of four weeks (on the sidelines), but well be taking as long as required to make sure that Joe is fully recovered and available to play at his best," Crow said.

Although the complaint seemed to go out of fashion after the mid 2000s, Daniher has become the fourth high-profile player with a groin injury this year.

Sydney's Dan Hannebery, Giant Josh Kelly and Adelaide's Brad Crouch have all missed several weeks with groin problems.

Kelly, whose soreness developed over the pre-season, hasn't played at any level in a month and continues to be a concern at GWS while Crouch is still three to four weeks away.

Hannebery, on the other hand, played the majority of last year with osteitis pubis and barely had a pre-season before suffering a small tear in his groin a fortnight ago.

It's hoped that both he and Lance Franklin will return for Friday night's blockbuster against Hawthorn at the MCG.

Daniher, 24, has been somewhat of a lightning rod for the Bombers horrible form with just eight goals from seven games this year, well below the output that catapulted him to All-Australian selection last year.

Joe Daniher has been battling injury all season.

Photo: AAP

Assistant coach Mark Harvey confirmed on Tuesday that Daniher had been battling a groin issue since the pre-season.

Harvey conceded Daniher had been playing sore this year.

“I think its been catching up on him,” he said.

“Over pre-season he had a groin issue that we managed … we got that right and strengthened the area around it but I just think with the dynamics of playing since round one now that it might just be concerning him a little bit more than what it was.''

The Bombers are languishing in 15th spot on the ladder having won just two of their first seven games and Harvey said the club was working on ways to arrest the dramatic momentum shifts theyve been experience during games this year.

Third quarters in particular have been a massive concern for the Bombers. They are the only team who are yet to win a third quarter this year and in their last three third quarters they have only managed a total of 1.7 while conceding 15.11

“Weve beaten the two Adelaide sides both in Melbourne and we havent been able to produce that effort for long enough in the other games so weve had varying degrees of whats happened to us over that losing period,” Harvey said.

“Weve lost obviously five games, and all for different reasons, the third quarter has been issue for us, weve had strategy put in place to try to erase things like momentum shifts, so thats still ongoing. Were trying a couple of different things to rectify that issue.

“Even the last few weeks weve kept the opposition to four goals at half-time and then theres been a blowout after that so I think you start to look into things like sustaining effort a little bit more.”

Harvey insisted that the players were constantly challenging each other in every aspect of the game in order to bring about improvement.

“We have a very demanding leadership group that some of those guys probably need to lead from the front a little bit more than what theyre doing as well too,” Harvey said.

“On a daily basis were trying to eradicate some of the issues weve got in our game plan at the moment.”

Comments disabled

Sam McClure

Sam McClure won the Clinton Grybas rising star award at the AFL media association awards in 2015.

Ronny Lerner

Ronny Lerner is a Sports reporter for The Age.

Morning & Afternoon Newsletter

Delivered Mon–Fri.

Related Articles

Back to top button