The Gold Coast SUNS can confirm young defender Connor Budarick will miss an extended period of time after scans revealed a rupture to his ACL.
Budarick sustained the injury in the final quarter of the victory over North Melbourne on Saturday night and is planning to undergo surgery in the coming days.
“Unfortunately for Connor he’s ruptured his ACL,” Head Physiotherapist Lindsay Bull told the Qscan Injury Update.
“He’ll see the specialist later this week and have surgery this week then we’ll go from there with his rehab.”
Key forward Sam Day also suffered a knee injury in the Round 2 match and does not yet have a timeline for his return.
“Sam came off with a knee injury right on half-time unfortunately so was subbed out of the game,” Bull said.
“He’s had some scans today and we’ll consult with a specialist tomorrow about where his knee’s at and we’ll have a further prognosis on that later in the week.”
Playing in the VFL practice match on the same day, recruit Jacob Townsend picked up a facial fracture and will be unavailable this weekend.
“Jacob has got a fracture in his face so he’s going to see a specialist tomorrow and probably have some surgery later this week as well,” Bull said.
Ruckman Zac Smith is progressing with his knee (PCL) injury and has this week come out of his knee brace to commence the next stage of his rehab.
“Zac’s done really well while he’s been in the brace and stayed really strong and passed a few markers that we placed in front of Zac before he starts to run,” Bull said.
“Ideally with Zac we’ll get him running later this week or early next week and be able to progress him on from there.”
