Gold Coast Sun Harrison Wigg to miss season after knee injury shock

Gold Coast are counting the cost of an intense intra-club scratch match with midfielder Harrison Wigg set to miss a year after suffering a serious knee injury.

Harrison Wigg’s stunning pre-season efforts have been cruelled by a season-ending knee injury. Picture: Richard Gosling

Gold Coast are counting the cost of an intense intra-club scratch match with midfielder Harrison Wigg set to miss a year after suffering a serious knee injury.

The former Crow had been a revelation this off-season after arriving at the club overweight at the end of 2017 and then suffering an ankle injury over the summer that delayed the start of his career as a Sun.

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Harrison Wigg’s stunning pre-season efforts have been cruelled by a season-ending knee injury. Picture: Richard Gosling

He stunned the football department with his application over summer — stripping down considerably and shaving a minute off his personal best in the 2km time trial to match it with the midfielders.

Callum Ah Chee dominated the hitout with a display that suggests he is ready to take another leap forward this year and showed why the club selected him with their first pick in the 2015 draft — but his performance was overshadowed by the crushing injury to Wigg.

At $102,400, Wigg was set to be one of the most popular cheapie defenders in SuperCoach, but lasted just minutes in the first serious hitout of the season on Metricon Oval.

Football manager Jon Haines confirmed he had ruptured his right ACL.

“It’s really unfortunate for Harrison, he had an injury interrupted season with the club last year but had put together a really strong pre-season,’’ he said.

Wigg had done a power of work in the offseason, impressing Gold Coast powerbrokers. Picture: Glenn Hampson

“We’ll make sure we provide as much support as we can for him and it has been great today to see the way the whole football club has got around to show their support.

“We were excited to see Harrison play some exciting football this year as we know what he can provide for us both on and off the field.

“We know he’ll approach his recovery with the same professionalism he has shown this pre-season and we look forward to seeing him back up and running.’’

It is the second significant training injury in a week after running machine Josh Schoenfeld injured his ankle in a strong tackle on Friday.

Schoenfeld, who dominates the club’s time trials, will spend eight weeks on the sidelines after undergoing surgery this week.

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Originally published as Gold Coast Sun Harrison Wigg to miss season after knee injury shock