Crows ruckman Sam Jacobs says he will find out on Thursday if he needs surgery on his injured knee
Star Adelaide ruckman Sam Jacobs could be sidelined for up to two months, saying he faces the prospect of surgery on a damaged meniscus in his right knee.
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Star Adelaide ruckman Sam Jacobs could be sidelined for two months.
The Crows ironman, who had played 53 consecutive games and 181 of a possible 185 before missing the round three clash against Geelong, faces the prospect of surgery on his battle-scarred right knee.
An operation to repair damaged meniscus would keep him out of action for between four and eight weeks.
Jacobs’ other option is to simply rest the injury — which has already ruled him out for a third consecutive game, Sunday’s must-win home clash against Gold Coast — and hope it heals.
But that would make him a week-by-week proposition for the rest of the season.
Jacobs is expected to make a decision on the best course of treatment by Thursday.
“We’re in the process of flushing out the next course of action, how the injury looks going forward,’’ Jacobs told The Advertiser.
“It’s pretty frustrating for me because I hate missing games but the damage has been done from playing (AFL) footy for 13 years.
“It’s a meniscus (two wedge-shaped pieces of rubbery knee cartilage that act as ‘shock absorbers’ between the femur, tibia and patella bones that join the knee) issue, which is a bit harder because you want to preserve it knowing that once it’s gone it’s gone.
“So we’ve got a decision to make around that. The good thing is that everything else around the knee is in really good shape.
“But the meniscus is causing me a bit of grief.’’
Jacobs’ injury flared after he took an innocuous knock to the knee in the second quarter of the round two win against Sydney at the SCG.
He briefly left the field before returning and playing out the game.
But he pulled up sore and missed the next two matches.
Jacobs trained hard privately on the weekend and thought he would play against the Suns before failing a rigorous fitness test on Tuesday.
“I tried to do a lot of the higher intensity stuff, the tackling, the fast feet work at ruck contests and the high intensity quick movements and it didn’t agree with my knee,’’ the 31-year-old said.
“So we decided to pull the pin on this week, which was disappointing, and reassess where we would go with the injury.’’
The Crows have not won a game since Jacobs has been sidelined, with his ruck duties handed to novice Reilly O’Brien.
Jacobs said he cannot recall the incident against Sydney that flared his injury.
“I had a bit of bruising at the front of my knee which I think came from a knock in the ruck, which is pretty common at ruck contests,’’ he said.
“But that clearly triggered the meniscus to flare up. As a ruckman at my age I guess the knee has copped a bit of a battering over a long period of time and the meniscus had slowly deteriorated.
“I could manage it to a certain extent but, at the moment, not get to the level that I want and what the game demands.’’
Jacobs is stuck on 198 games after playing 17 with Carlton in 2009-10 before being traded to Adelaide, where he has played 181 matches.
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