Groin soreness to plague Maric for remainder of careerBy Nick Bowen
afl.com.au
Thursday, July 4, 2013RICHMOND ruckman Ivan Maric will have to manage groin soreness for the rest of his career but will return to the Tigers' team in round 16 against Gold Coast, Tigers coach Damien Hardwick says.
Maric missed the Tigers' win over St Kilda last Sunday and has already been ruled out of this Saturday's clash with North Melbourne.
But Hardwick said on Thursday Maric's injury was not a concern as the Tigers get closer to their first finals appearance since 2001.
"The big thing for him is just getting his body right. It's going to be an ongoing issue throughout the remainder of his career," Hardwick said.
"He's just got to manage his body. We've got to keep strengthening that core area. Every year around this time he probably needs a couple of weeks off to get the remainder of the year up and going.
"He'll be fine. Next week he'll be available to play."
Hardwick said the heavy load Maric carries as Richmond's number one ruckmen inevitably took a toll as the season wore on.
"Funnily enough it still does need some load going through there, but it's just the constant grind of the ruck contest," Hardwick said.
"You look at the start of the year the stoppage numbers are about 85 a game, now they're up over about 115 so they're going up again.
"So it's that constant battle and Ivan probably does, a bit like Will Minson does (for the Western Bulldogs), about 90 per cent of our ruck work, at centre bounces and ruck contests.
"It's just always going to catch up to him at some stage."
http://www.afl.com.au/news/2013-07-04/groin-soreness-a-maric-curse
