Much like how for the rest of the year you can’t turn around in Melbourne without overhearing someone say they just got back from either Berlin or Barcelona, this week talk of Dustin Martin and his much-vaunted mystery injury has been virtually inescapable in the Victorian capital.
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Ahead of this Friday night’s intensely anticipated AFL Preliminary Final between Richmond and Collingwood, which is expected to attract a crowd pushing 100,000 at the MCG, the talk of the town has been the status of Dustin Martin, after the gun Richmond midfielder underwent a suspiciously light training load over the past handful of days.
Today, Tigers coach Damian Hardwick moved to put all speculation to bed, asserting that Martin’s injury was a rather gross-sounding bleed inside his leg, but despite that he will still lineup at the ‘G on Friday night.
Hardwick confirmed that Martin had suffered a “significant” corked thigh during Richmond’s successful Qualifying Final clash against Hawthorn two weeks ago, and that the bleeding was so cooked it seeped down into his knee.
Fronting a media pack frothing to put fact to the rampant speculation they’ve been running, Hardwick confirmed the bleeding had settled and that Martin will return to a full training load today.
It’s a pretty significant corkie. It was bleeding down into his knee. It takes a little bit of time to settle but it’s settled now and he’ll train today and he’ll be available to play on Friday.
He’ll train today so we’ll get a fair indication of whether he’s 95 per cent, 100 per cent.
Not many players are 100 per cent these days at this stage of the year anyway. We’re confident he’ll be at his best. He’s had a great finals series already so we’re looking forward to that continuing Friday night.
Footage of Martin leaving the training track early sent panic waves through the army of Tiger faithful as the powerhouse side continues their Premiership defence.
So there you go, sports fans: Dusty had an injury, it sounded fairly crook, but it’s fine now and he’s playing on Friday night.
Fucken how good is Finals Footy.
