Mark Coughlan ready for return
Mark Stevens | July 01, 2008
MARK Coughlan is on track to finally make his return to football this weekend.
Richmond coach Terry Wallace last night confirmed the midfielder was on the brink of playing for the Tigers' VFL affiliate Coburg.
"I think he'll play this week," Wallace said.
"If he gets through training this week, he should be OK to go against Box Hill on Sunday."
It will be an anxious time for all at Punt Rd given one more serious mishap would cast grave doubts on Coughlan's football future.
Coughlan, a victim of two knee reconstructions, has not played at AFL level since Round 12, 2006.
But his hamstrings now pose a greater threat.
The 2003 Richmond best-and-fairest winner tore a hamstring at training in mid-May.
It came after another hamstring injury during the NAB Cup that delayed his start to the season.
Coughlan later travelled to Germany for intensive treatment, enduring 102 injections over 12 days in a visit to the clinic of Dr Hans-Wilhelm Mueller-Wohlfarth.
On his return, Coughlan said he hoped to play by June, but Richmond decided to take an extremely conservative approach.
"He might have been able to play a couple of weeks ago," Wallace said.
"We thought it was better off getting four weeks of training into him rather than throwing him back out into it."
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,23949370-19742,00.html
