Are North Melbourne pushing their young players too hard?

For the second year in a row one of North Melbourne’s draft picks has been sidelined with a foot injury. First, in 2009, it was Liam Anthony who was named to play in Round 1 of the 2009 Premiership Season but was forced out with stress fractures in his foot. This time, it is first round draft pick Ben Cunnington who has been sidelined after scans revealed a hot spot in his right foot, after he experienced some minor pains.

It was fortunate for Cunnington that he went straight to the medical staff (no doubt Anthony’s situation was in his mind) who organised scans at the earliest possible time. The scans revealed the hot spot, which in most cases is the precursor to a stress fracture. He will miss up to four weeks of training while he rests the foot, but had he trained for even just one more week the fracture could have materialised causing him to miss up to twice that. Anthony didn’t make his AFL Debut until round 13 after he was diagnosed, and had to come back through the VFL because of it.

With all this said, is it possible that North Melbourne is pushing their young draftees too hard? A stress fracture is what orthopaedic surgeons call an “overuse injury”. This type of injury is commonly caused by “increasing the amount or intensity of an activity too rapidly” and/or “increased physical stress”, both of which you would expect when moving from Under 18 footy to AFL level. Now, not knowing the full extent of North Melbourne’s training sessions I’m not going to straight out say they are doing something wrong; but surely two draftees in two years, each going through their first AFL pre-seasons, each reaching similar overuse related injuries says that maybe something should be toned down a little?

References:
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons – Stress Fractures
About.com: Orthopaedics – Stress Fractures
AFL News Article about Ben Cunnington’s injury
AFL News Article about Liam Anthony’s injury

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