Injury forces Natanui out of season start

9th January 2009, 15:15 WST

EXCLUSIVE: Boom West Coast teenager Nick Naitanui has a serious knee injury and will miss the start of the season.

The No.2 selection overall in last year's national draft is expected to be sidelined for at least three months after scans showed a fracture in his knee.

Seen as the heir apparent to four-time All-Australian ruckman Dean Cox, Naitanui will now be faced with the prospect of forcing his way into West Coast's side during the home-and-away season on a severely restricted program.

A mate of myn got this from his sources in WA...

very sad if true - shows how easy it is to cop some bad luck and i won't mention you know who - at least if it's a fracture it's a relatively good knee to do.

West Coast recruit Nick Naitanui to undergo knee surgery

Poor bugger! You hate to see anyone go down with an injury, especially in your first preseason.

Hopefully will not set him back to far in his development

What a bummer, I was looking forward to watching him. Guess ill just have to wait a bit longer.

Speaking of injured ruckmen, Robbie Warnock has a problem with his ankle and will be sidelined for 2 months as well (from AFL.com)

very sad if true - shows how easy it is to cop some bad luck and i won't mention you know who - at least if it's a fracture it's a relatively good knee to do.

Won't mention who?

B

What a bummer, I was looking forward to watching him. Guess ill just have to wait a bit longer.

Speaking of injured ruckmen, Robbie Warnock has a problem with his ankle and will be sidelined for 2 months as well (from AFL.com)

It's starting to look as if Warnock is a bit injury prone and that it might have been fortuitous that Carlton came along and offered him that 4 year contract with the big money

As for Nik Nat it's not too bad for something like this to come along at this stage of his career although there could be problems if the injury affects his athleticism which is his main strength ATM.

I wish no ill will to any player.. thats crap luck for both..one as to respark a career..another before even started.. But I'll say what we're thinking... A little luck is comng our way for a change , this portends well

Speedy recoveries to all.

Won't mention who?

i touch wood on behalf of a prominent recruit upon whom much hope is riding and remember vividly what this sort of luck did to our mid-90s flag chances

Karl from the Simpsons voice: Ssssshhuuut-uppp.

This is a real shame.

My son and I met him at my kids' school carnival (West Footscray Primary) the morning after the draft and he is a really nice young guy.

Looking at him, however, I'm not surprised he got injured because he was a total beanpole (very, very skinny) and it looked to us like he'd get injured easily.

I hope he recovers well.

Had we not won THAT game we would have NN instead of Blease

Let's see if that turns out to be a blessing incognito

Had we not won THAT game we would have NN instead of Blease

Let's see if that turns out to be a blessing incognito

Good point.

I wonder how far he would have slipped if he did the injury pre-draft.

Still looking forward to seeing him play.

Good point.

I wonder how far he would have slipped if he did the injury pre-draft.

Still looking forward to seeing him play.

I would suggest he would have slipped outside the top 10.