Johnson out for half of season
richmondfc.com.au
By Mic Cullen 12:31 PM Fri 03 April, 2009
FORMER Richmond skipper Kane Johnson has been placed on the long-term injury list and will miss at least the first half of the season.
The 31-year-old hurt the knee twice over the pre-season and had it operated on, but ongoing soreness has forced the move.
But with further surgery not expected to help the injury, rest is the prescribed solution.
Coach Terry Wallace said he expected the former Crow to be back later in the year.
“Kane Johnson was put on the long-term injury list throughout the week, which is a little disappointing, but from that point-of-view, he’ll miss eight weeks and that’ll have him back for the second half of the year,” he said at Punt Rd on Friday morning.
“He had two episodes with the knee over the summer and had an operation on the knee, so it’ll just take a bit of time.
“It’s more patella (kneecap) – it’s from being knocked rather than it being strained.
“Both of them were done on the ground, so knee into hard surfaces created both the injuries, unfortunately they just take time.”
Wallace reiterated that the Ben Cousins hamstring injury was at the minor end of the scale.
“As we’ve said the whole time, Ben’s wasn’t a bad hamstring," he said.
“We’ll have to be a little bit cautious with it just because it is on the same leg that he had it [previously], albeit definitely a different site, so it has nothing to do with his old injury.
“It’s only a light strain, and I would have said a normal scenario would have only had him out for two games, but probably we’d lengthen that by a week.
“Rainsy (Andrew Raines) had an operation on his knee, had a bit of cartilage removed, so that’s usually a four or five-week injury.”
http://www.richmondfc.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/6301/newsid/74317/default.aspx
