Hurt Hurley ‘time Bomber’
MICHAEL Hurley has been warned his dislocated right shoulder could pop out the first time he punches a ball as he closes in on a risky qualifying final appearance.
Leading sports medico Peter Larkins yesterday said that playing only two weeks after a shoulder dislocation put him at an “extraordinarily high” risk of another episode on Thursday night.
The Essendon star is likely to take on Jack Darling or Josh Kennedy on the last line of Essendon defence only 13 days after his shoulder was bent back in a marking contest involving Aaron Francis against Collingwood in Round 23.
Larkins told the Herald Sun the growing research on shoulder dislocations made it clear surgery was needed, but understood why the Bombers would play the All Australian defender.
“The risk is extraordinarily high. He needs to have it fixed. Pain wise and movement wise he will be fine but it’s just the looseness of the shoulder,” he said.
“It can be as simple as punching a ball for it to pop out. It doesn’t have to be a traumatic incident like the last time. I am expecting him to play but in the knowledge that it could happen in the first minute or he could play the whole game. It’s not a definite, it’s just a high risk.”
Sydney’s Callum Sinclair dislocated his shoulder this year and while he returned to the field to attempt a recovery it immediately popped out, with the ruckman needing season-ending surgery.
Hurley missed only four games with the AC joint surgery and hadn’t seemed to be carrying the left shoulder issue in Round 22 before the right shoulder dislocation.
“It’s his right arm, so it’s his main punching arm and main contest arm,” Larkins said. “The ruckman will often tap with his opposite arm, but as a defender who likes to punch, I have seen them dislocate the first time a player goes to punch. It throws the arm forward and comes up forward when it dislocates.
“We are really drilling deeply into the risk of shoulder dislocations mid-season, and the risk of dislocation again when they come back is extraordinarily high but with finals he won’t be doing that.”