Port’s injury curse: now Carlile hit for six
Port Adelaide’s injury crisis continues to spiral, with key defender Alipate Carlile set to miss the next four to six weeks after wrist surgery.
His absence comes on top of the omission of star forward Chad Wingard (hamstring) and the lingering loss of vice-captain Hamish Hartlett (hamstring) and spearhead Jay Schulz (back).
Pacy Matt White had already been ruled out for half the season after tearing his pectoral muscle off the bone, and the Power kicked off the season underdone with the pre-season loss of former Essendon players Paddy Ryder and Angus Monfries.
By chance, they take on the suspension-hit Bombers tomorrow night, which could be the only silver lining for a Port side now missing seven first-choice players and very much in the spotlight after a lacklustre Showdown performance.
But the Adelaide Oval showcase remains a danger game, after an Essendon win over Melbourne last weekend suggested they may not be the 2016 easybeats pre-season pundits predicted.
Moreover, the loss of lockdown backman Carlile is ominous given the form of emerging forward Joe Daniher in the Bombers’ victory.
Darren Burgess, the club’s head of high performance, told the Port Adelaide website Carlile “has a non-displaced fractured scaphoid – basically a crack to a bone in his wrist”.
“We think he might’ve hurt it against St Kilda as he reported a little soreness after the game [and] we got it scanned after he reported it hadn’t improved in Round Two,” he said.
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“He’ll be running within a week [but] his contact work will take about a month.”
Coach Ken Hinkley conceded: “We’ve got some issues on the injury front.”
“[Carlile] adds another one to the list and means we’re seven or eight players away from where we’d like to be – hopefully we’ll get them back really quick,” he told Melbourne radio RSN.
“There’s a little bit missing in our team, but it gives opportunity for good young players to come in and play well.”
