Nic Naitanui to return for West Coast, but what can Eagles fans expect from him?
Updated
Nic Naitanui didn't just injure his knee, he wrecked it.
"His injury was a bigger injury than other ACLs (anterior cruciate ligament)," said leading Perth orthopaedic surgeon Peter Annear, who performed the operation to repair Naitanui's knee.
"When you rupture your ACL that is one part of the injury, but it is often the secondary injury.
"He had a big bone injury and that was very much why on the medical side of things we have gone slower with him."
It has now been almost 18 months since the West Coast ruckman suffered the injury against Hawthorn at Subiaco in August, 2016.
And after plenty of speculation he finally has a return date — the Eagles pre-season match against Fremantle on March 11.
It will mark the return of a player, who at his best was the game's best tap ruckman with a knack for producing the unexpected.
Last-gasp wins against North Melbourne in 2013 and Greater Western Sydney in 2016 are a couple of examples of how Naitanui can win games off his own boot.
He has faced some criticism for not doing enough around the field, but there is no doubt West Coast is a more formidable side with a fit Naitanui as its number one ruckman.
But while the soon to be 28-year-old is about to be cleared medically, Dr Annear said expectations need to be realistic.
"He certainly won't be, in the first half of the season, the player he was before the injury," said Dr Annear.
"That is how most of the footballers tend to improve, over that first three to six months.
"I think we have to temper our hopes that he suddenly comes back and arrives, we are top four and he is playing like he used to."
Return carries reinjury risk
The big unknown for players returning from significant injury is how quickly they regain confidence and readjust to the pace and movement of an AFL game.
"We can wiggle his knee and say he is stable, his movement is good, his muscle is good," explained Dr Annear.
"But all those subtle, what we call 'pro-perceptive-type' movements — where he feels where his knee is on the field — that will improve and still be improving. That takes (another) 12 months.
"If you talk to footy coaches it is a two-year recovery, so this first year back after an ACL they tend not to play as well, they tend to be improving out to their pre-injury level."
So with history as a guide, it will be a while until we see the 201-centimetre, 110-kilogram ruckman back to his best.
All-Australian's Luke Darcy, Shaun Rehn and Matthew Primus all had knee reconstructions later in their careers and it is fair say none were the same players after.
But Paul Salmon did his knee in 1984 as a teenager at Essendon, but went on to play more than 300 games for the Bombers and Hawthorn.
Naitanui is a superior athlete to any ruckman that has come before him but all indications are more patience is required before we see the player of old.
Topics: sport, australian-football-league, perth-6000
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