Adelaide Crows news: Rory Sloane in doubt for round 1, Jake Soligo injured at training
The Crows’ pre-season has taken two further hits, with a veteran in doubt for round one and one of their brightest young stars going down with an ankle injury at training.
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Adelaide veteran Rory Sloane is in doubt for round 1 after having another surgery on a detached retina.
Sloane, 33, had an operation on his right eye on Tuesday night – two years on from having the same procedure.
The midfielder missed four games after his 2021 surgery and a similar timeline would put him up against it to play in any of the Crows’ trial matches.
Adelaide begins its season away against Gold Coast on March 16.
Sloane’s return to training will be assessed after he recovers at home for the next five days.
Last year he told this masthead that detaching his retina was the craziest injury of his career.
“That was definitely the one that if I trained a bit longer or strained any more and fully detached the retina, then you lose half your eyesight and it would’ve been me done,” the former skipper said.
“Essentially they (doctors) had to stick my retina back to my eyeball, put a gas bubble in there and then I had to lay on my side for seven days while it firmed up.
“For a whole week, I was lying on my right side in bed and was only able to get up to go to the toilet and eat.”
Sloane’s history of eye issues also includes a fractured socket in 2017 and missing round 24 last season because of an eye complaint from the previous week.
Adelaide high-performance boss Darren Burgess said Sloane was remaining very positive.
“Given he has been through this before he understands what the process will look like from here,” Burgess said.
Adelaide is hopeful midfielder Jake Soligo has avoided serious injury after badly rolling his ankle at training on Wednesday.
Soligo was helped off by trainers and in obvious pain after hurting himself in a marking contest.
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