Coughlan may miss season
5:17:05 PM Sun 18 June, 2006
Jason Phelan
Sportal for afl.com.au
Richmond's season suffered a hammer blow on Sunday with star midfielder Mark Coughlan suffering a suspected ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.
The Tiger onballer limped off in the third minute of his side's 41-point loss to Hawthorn at Aurora Stadium in Launceston and, despite running the boundary and even going back onto the field momentarily, coach Terry Wallace suspected the worst after the match.
"We think it's an ACL, (but) we won't know until the tests are done tomorrow, but it looks likely that he'll be out for 12 months which makes it a very disappointing day obviously," Wallace said.
"He was tagged last week and played a pretty good game and he came off a 40-possession game over in Perth the week prior to that, so he was getting right back to his best footy.
"Some blokes in this competition seem to get a wretched run, while other blokes seem to get a blessed run and he's one of those players who just doesn't seem to have any luck about the way he goes about it."
Wallace was unable to pinpoint the exact play that caused the injury and was unsure why Coughlan was initially cleared to retake the field.
He said he would 'go through that with the medical staff'.
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