Heel giving Johnson no stress
1:37:03 PM Thu 5 May, 2005
Matt Burgan
Sportal for afl.com.au
Richmond captain Kane Johnson believes he is ahead of schedule in terms of recovering from a heel injury which forced him out of the side from rounds three to five.
Although Johnson played in Richmond's stunning 56-point victory over Port Adelaide last round, he revealed to afl.com.au that he wasn't expecting to return until this Saturday for the team's clash against arch-rival Carlton.
"The main aim was probably for this week to come back, but then I trained last week and it felt good, so we decided that we'd go in with a plan and play off the bench and do spurts in the midfield and just add a bit of freshness to there and give some blokes a rest," Johnson said.
"So that's how we went about it and we might go about it for the next couple of weeks, but I don't know what we're going to do about this week. I'd hope to play a bit more this week and over the next few weeks."
"The main thing is that you don't over stress it again, because as soon as you over stress it again, it could put you out for another four or five weeks," Johnson said.
Johnson said his heel had 'pulled up pretty well' after playing on the Telstra Dome surface last Sunday, which he added was not too dissimilar to running out on the MCG at the moment.
"It's (Telstra Dome) very, very slippery at the moment, but it wasn't too bad. I've actually found the first two games at the MCG were fairly hard as well - the 'G is probably the hardest it's ever been too," Johnson said.
"The 'G has been very hard this year - I don't know whether it's because we haven't had a lot of rain and they've changed the surface for the Commonwealth Games - but it has been a little bit harder, so both surfaces are pretty similar at the moment."
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