Matt Gillett racing the clock to be fit for finals after horror season takes another sour turn
MATT Gillett’s nightmare season has continued with the Broncos back-rower racing the clock to be fit for the finals after tearing his calf muscle.
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SCANS have confirmed a torn calf for Bronco Matt Gillett, with an expected six-week recovery putting the rest of his nightmare season in jeopardy.
Scans showed grade-two calf damage for Gillett in his latest injury blow after fracturing his neck in April.
The Queensland Origin ace has been progressing well on a modified program in the past month, but suffered a fresh setback on Monday when he heard a popping sound in his calf as he warmed-up with Broncos teammates.
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Broncos medicos expect Gillett to recover from his torn calf for a Round 22 derby against the Cowboys, but there is no guarantee he will also get the green light on his delicate neck injury.
Broncos high-performance chief Jeremy Hickmans said Gillett, who hasn’t played since round five, faces another frustrating period of rehabilitation after an innocuous mishap at Brisbane training.
“He’s torn his calf which is disappointing,” Hickmans said.
“It was a very random injury. Matt was warming up with the guys and they were doing a light run playing some passing games when he heard a pop.
“We’re looking at about six weeks out. Hopefully it won’t set ‘Gillo’ back too far because he had a really good pre-season and this has just come out of the blue.
“We’ve had a tough run lately. Every time we get someone out of rehab, someone else seems to come in.
“He didn’t see this coming at all. He has been training well and we even backed off his loads to make sure he was progressing well.”
The extended loss of Brisbane’s best back-rower is a setback the Broncos can do without as they look to build momentum for a charge at the top four – starting against the Titans at Robina this Sunday.
Gillett was due to have scans on his neck in the next fortnight, but Hickmans said that will now be delayed.
The upside of the calf injury is that it will give Gillett more healing time on the three small cracks to his neck which he suffered in round one against the Dragons.
The Kangaroos forward should be cleared in time for the playoffs but Hickmans admits there are no guarantees.
“We can’t say when Matt will be back with his neck,” Hickmans said.
“At the moment, Matt has another neck scan due in two weeks, but we’re thinking of putting that back, because even if he was cleared, he can’t play for another six weeks anyway with his calf.
“It makes sense to put the scans back to give Matt as much healing time as possible.
“It’s an area that is hard to stimulate with rehab. It’s not like an ACL (knee) injury where there is a definite timeline, but we’re scanning him every six weeks and seeing where he is up to.
“The neck is a delicate area and the healing process has been a little slower, so we’re not going to take any risks.”
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