Buckley says injury woes ‘overblown’
Coach Nathan Buckley says talk of an injury crisis at Collingwood is “overblown”, as the depleted Magpies prepare to host Gold Coast tomorrow.
Persistent soft-tissue injuries have hampered the Pies’ topfour ambitions and made it highly likely the club will review its protocols.
Darcy Moore, Taylor Adams, Ben Reid, Daniel Wells and Tom Langdon are among the key players to have been sidelined by hamstring or knee injuries, while Dayne Beams managed just nine games before being forced to undergo hip surgery.
Of that group, only Adams – who has hardly played this season, in a major blow for the Pies – is available to face the Suns.
Jordan De Goey (hamstring) and Isaac Quaynor (foot) became the latest injury casualties after last week’s loss to Richmond.
But despite having lost four of their past five games, Buckley doesn’t believe Collingwood’s problems run any deeper than most AFL clubs.
“I think that’s been overblown in some shape or form,” he said yesterday. “We’ve got some soft-tissue concerns, but I don’t think ours are any more major than others.
“We’ve got some other boys that have had either some knee or hip issues and some other non-footy-related ones.
“I’d encourage anyone to just have a look a little bit deeper.
“We’d love to have 45 players available all the time – that’s utopia and that’s what we’re heading towards.
“It’s hard to sit here as a coach and say that it’s acceptable ... but we can make do with what we got and we should be performing better than we are at the moment.”