Hammy can wait, says May

MELBOURNE defender Steven May played in Saturday night’s grand final just two weeks after suffering what would ordinarily be considered a seven-week injury.

May was only told of the full extent of his injury in the aftermath of the season decider, with word filtering through to him that he had a 6cm tear in his right hamstring.

The 29-year-old looked sore at times during the game, but still played 93 per cent game time and held dangerous Bulldogs opponent Aaron Naughton to a single goal in the Demons’ thumping 74point win.

May, who logged 14 disposals and took five marks, said after the game that he realised his hamstring was still not right when he lunged for a second-quarter ground ball, but tried to block the pain out of his mind.

“I just thought I’ve got an hour to get through and I can fix the hammy in the off-season,” May said.

“I was glad I was able to still not be a liability out there, able to still try and have some sort of influence. It was all heart really … I’ll deal with this in the next few days.”

Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin said on Sunday that he “couldn’t not pick” May after this year’s All-Australian fullback passed all his fitness tests in the week leading up to the grand final.