Of course it was a reason!! Are you telling me that osteitis pubis would not hinder your development? Are you saying he should make no mention of this in an interview where would have been asked about such things? The main thrust of that article was that he was using those setbacks he cited as motivation to improve himself and he is spot on when he said it was time lost that he wished he could have back - it wasn't an excuse, it was a very honest piece of reflection on his part.

As I said, that article is two years old and the past two years have probably seen the biggest improvement in his game - so he was as good as his word. Unfortunately fate has intervened and he has been struck another injury blow... but I suppose you will take the view that he is likely to use that as a reason for any substandard performances he puts in later this year.... sorry, but I really do get sick of all of the unjustified rubbishing that players get on this site.

How is it rubbishing a player by saying i hope we don't have any further players who have a reason, fact, mention, whatever trivial word people want to use that injury stunts there development?

It seems to be a big issue at MFC, if people are positive about everything then why are we struggling for so many years? issues need to be identified for them to be fixed. If some of the posters here knew gamblers they would be saying "oh his only lost $5000 this week, down from losing $10 000 last week, must be giving it up'

The issue here is MFC seem to have alot of young players spending alot of time injured which seems to be that it is stunting there development. Which results in poor performance later on in there career.

Maybe there bodies are being pushed to hard while they are still maturing?

Maybe our recruiters dont read medical reports prior to recruiting

Maybe the recruiters dont know how to keep an eye out for players with injury prone game styles

Imagine if Blease, Strause, Jurrah, Grimes, Petterd, Gysberts, Cook, Gawn, Evans ect were fit for 80% of there careers so far. I am sure the list would be looking a hell of a look stronger right now.

How is it rubbishing a player by saying i hope we don't have any further players who have a reason, fact, mention, whatever trivial word people want to use that injury stunts there development?

You singled out Sylvia as using injury as an excuse for his poor performance, when that was clearly not the case according to the article you cited. He was using that as an incentive to improve, and improve he did. I consider your use of "excuse" in that instance to be demeaning of Sylvia and hence my use of the term "rubbishing".