A dark weekend for the Gold Coast SUNS was heightened by the confirmation star midfielder Jaeger O’Meara will require surgery to repair a ruptured patella tendon.
The 21-year-old was making his first appearance since undergoing a procedure to resolve knee tendonitis problems that plagued him throughout 2014 and threatened his longevity in the game.
O’Meara’s outstanding professionalism and commitment to getting his body right had drawn widespread praise from senior football figures across the club, with Saturday’s NEAFL practice match the final stages of his rehabilitation program.
In devastating circumstance, that highlight the cruel nature of football, O’Meara had an opponent fall across his knees in a contest - with the impact dislocating his knee cap and rupturing his patella tendon.
Gold Coast SUNS rehabilitation coach Matthew Kennedy labelled the incident as ‘freakish’ and explained that O’Meara’s post-season cutting edge surgery played no part in the severity of the injury.
“Extremely disappointing from his point of view after all the work he’s done. We will do all we can to ensure he gets back in as good a shape as he possibly can,” Kennedy told the Round Two Optomo Injury Report on Tuesday.
“He’s got a long road ahead of him, and it is a really significant injury but one that would have happened regardless (of his post-season procedure).
“We think it was one of those freakish accidents, where it was knee-on-knee contact, the knee dislocated high up on to his quad and the patella tendon ruptured.
“Extremely disappointing all round as a footy club but we will support him as best we can and get him back in absolute cherry ripe condition. The kid's made of pretty good stuff, I’m sure he will be fine, but a long road ahead for Jaeger.”
