Essendon’s injury crisis worsens – yet again

9 hours ago 4

Essendon’s shocking run of injuries shows no sign of slowing down after scans showed midfielder Elijah Tsatas suffered a hamstring injury during round 18.

It tops off after a disastrous weekend for the Bombers, who lost Nic Martin to a knee injury and Will Setterfield to an ankle injury before Nate Caddy (soreness) and Ben Hobbs (groin) were also ruled out of the GWS clash on Thursday night.

Elijah Tsatas has joined Essendon’s casualty ward.

Tsatas played his first match since round 12 in the round 18 match against Richmond and reported soreness post-match. He was sent for scans, which came back showing a strain.

The injury crisis has led to a review into injury management at the Bombers with external expectations high there will be changes in the conditioning department at season’s end.

Bombers coach Brad Scott confirmed the club was planning to reallocate resources to prevent “a perfect storm of injuries” from happening again next season.

Scott admitted the Bombers were frustrated following their disastrous loss to Richmond at the weekend and their extensive injury list.

“It’s incredibly frustrating for everyone involved, but particularly the players,” Scott on Wednesday before the team’s training session at “the Hangar”.

“I mean, it’s hard not to be really frustrated, almost exasperated, just devastating seeing players like Nic Martin and Will Setterfield suffer really serious injuries … so that’s on an individual level, but it’s been a perfect storm of a whole range of different injuries all coming together at once.”

The Bombers lost Setterfield to a Lisfranc foot injury which requires surgery, while Martin is to undergo a knee reconstruction next week after tearing his ACL. Despite the circumstances, Scott said Martin was remaining resilient.

“I’m an eternal optimist, but it doesn’t mean I don’t get flat at times,” he said. “And Marto [Martin] is a good example for us. Like, yes, he’s optimistic, but he’s also had some pretty dark moments. But he’s been there before, and he knows the way out.”

When asked how the Bombers could avoid such a mammoth injury list next year, Scott said he was focused on the short term, but said the club would look at improvements.

“I have the utmost confidence in the people who are looking at our program and there’s no doubt we will reallocate resources to that space because we know better than anyone this year just how important it is to get the players out and fit.”

Scott highlighted the extensive injury list opened up opportunities for other players, with tall forward Liam McMahon to make his debut Thursday after joining the club just weeks ago in the mid-season draft.

McMahon will be the 13th debutant fielded by the Bombers this season. That’s equal with the struggling Fitzroy team of 1991 for the most debutants from an established club in a season.

“We can feel sorry for ourselves or we can get out and really grow through this adversity, and that that is really when you do improve,” Scott said.

“We weren’t out to break any debutant records at the start of the year.

“You know, we’re already a very young team to start the year, but when you have injuries, you get even younger ... but that’s the situation we’re in that presents a unique opportunity, and our fans get to see our future.”