Crows midfielder Brad Crouch to have surgery for groin soreness

ADELAIDE does not has a timeline for star midfielder Brad Crouch’s return to footy, with the club confirming he will go under the knife.

Adelaide Crows midfielder Brad Crouch has been unable to play a game this season due to groin soreness and is now booked in for surgery. Picture: Mark Stewart.

ADELAIDE does not know when Brad Crouch will be back playing footy after confirming the star midfielder will have surgery for groin soreness.

The Crows persisted all season with a strength and rehabilitation program in a bid to get Crouch on the park but assistant coach Scott Camporeale yesterday said a decision was made on Friday to book him in for surgery.

Camporeale said it wasn’t for him to answer what caused Crouch’s injury and he also couldn’t say if the surgery would rule him out for the entire season.

It is a cruel blow to the 24-year-old who battled a serious foot injury before finally playing a career-high 20 games last season.

“No timeline, we’ll see how the surgery goes and clearly if we can get him back we will, but after the surgery we’ll give you an update on all that,” Camporeale said.

“Clearly we want to get him right, he’s an important part of our group going forward and the whole process of trying to get him to where we need hasn’t worked and this is the next course of action to hopefully get him back.

“It’s been a tough road for him no doubt, these guys are here because they want to play AFL footy and he knows he can bring what he can to our group.

“But he understands where he’s at and unfortunately he just can’t physically do it at the moment so our player welfare and his mental space is paramount, so we’ve got to make sure we keep finding a way forward for him and hopefully this is the best way.”

Camporeale denied any suggestion the club had misled fans or the media over the severity of Crouch’s injury after initially ruling out surgery as an option.

“I think we’ve been really honest, up until three weeks ago when we said surgery probably wasn’t the course of action, three weeks is a long time,” he said.

“And we’re doing our utmost, seeing specialists, different opinions, strength programs, I’m not sure what else the supporters would want us to do other than have Brad’s best interests at heart.

Paul Seedsman got through the Crows training session on Saturday and will play against GWS at Adelaide Oval on Sunday.

“Three weeks we’ve seen some more specialists, he hasn’t responded, so this is the next course of action.”

Paul Seedsman (adductor) and Luke Brown (concussion) got through training at Adelaide Oval on Saturday and will play against GWS on Sunday as will Lachlan Murphy in place of Myles Poholke and Jordan Gallucci who were dropped after the 91-point loss to Melbourne.

Neither Gallucci nor Poholke is injured and Camporeale said Murphy was rewarded for the pressure he brings as a small forward.

“Clearly at the start of the year he was our best small pressure forward and we really loved what he brought to the group,” he said.

“He dropped away a little bit, had an injury and got him back in, so we’re really keen to see him have another crack at it and I think he complements Eddie (Betts) really well.”

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