Early end for Brown
18 August 2006
Herald-Sun
David Hastie
RICHMOND star Nathan Brown's injury-plagued season is finally over with the talented forward to have surgery this week to remove the rod from the leg he broke last year.
After hurting his hamstring in Round 17 against St Kilda, Brown suffered hamstring tightness while training on Wednesday and was expected to be sidelined for another two weeks.
Tigers' coach Terry Wallace said the decision to bring Brown's season to a premature end was endorsed by medical and coaching staff.
"We just couldn't see what impact he was going to be able to have after being out for five or six weeks," Wallace said last night.
"Off the back of everything else that's happened we just didn't see he'd be able to have any major impact to our last part of our season by staying out there.
"The player wants to play, he always wants to play but once we went through the process of the fact he wouldn't be available until Round 22, common sense, I guess, prevailed.
"We always get the player in when it's anything that's season-defining or a lengthy period of time just to let them know what everyone's thoughts are on the pathway we believe is best for that player at the time."
Brown, who played 10 games in 2006, made his comeback from a broken leg in Round 1. He suffered the injury in a sickening clash with Melbourne's Matthew Whelan in Round 10 last year.
While Wallace said he was disappointed for Brown, he described the move to opt for early surgery as a "footy decision".
"On Wednesday he was starting to actually look really good. He looked like he was going to be back in town, but he just pulled up a bit sore from that session with the hamstring," Wallace said.
"Basically the doctor said he hadn't re-torn it, it was just the hamstring was really tight.
"They said he was going to be restricted, not be able to train this week for the rest of the week, which meant he would miss on the weekend and then he'd be doubtful next week because he wouldn't have a full week on the track."
Brown is expected to be out of action for four weeks after surgery.
Wallace said Brown could now put his nightmare 2006 season behind him.
"I think, almost in his own mind, there'd be almost a sense of relief," Wallace said.
"(But) I reckon if you spoke to him there'd be a sense of disappointment, that he'd love to be out there playing with the boys but he now knows he can go in and get the rod taken out and get on with it."
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