Carlton defender Mitch McGovern could miss rest of the season after surgery on hamstring

Carlton will be a key defender down for a long time after surgery for Mitch McGovern.

Carlton captain Patrick Cripps is back to his best in 2022 after struggling with injuries the past two seasons. Picture: Getty Images

Carlton has been dealt a setback in its push for a finals breakthrough after defender Mitch McGovern was sent for surgery and maybe not play again in the home and away season.

McGovern, 27, is expected to miss at least 10-12 weeks after having an operation to repair his hamstring after back-to-back setbacks to start the season.

After being shifted to defence by new Carlton coach Michael Voss, McGovern first injured his hamstring ahead of round two, and then suffered a recurrence of the same injury last Thursday as he was on the verge of a return.

It’s a big blow for the Blues who have rocketed in to finals contention on the back of a 5-2 start to the season.

The surgery news comes as Brownlow Medal favourite Patrick Cripps said he wasn’t ready to talk about Carlton making the finals despite the Blues being in the best position through seven rounds in his nine years at the club.

Carlton’s 50-point drubbing of second-from-bottom North Melbourne, which Cripps dubbed its best four-quarter performance, lifted the Blues to sixth on the ladder.

It took only 11 wins to qualify for September last year, meaning the Blues could be almost halfway to ending their nine-year finals drought – and Cripps playing in the post-season for the first time.

They host 12th-placed Adelaide at Marvel Stadium on Sunday, and seven of their remaining 15 games are against opponents currently outside the top eight.

“I’m not thinking that far ahead yet,” Cripps said.

Patrick Cripps is enjoying his football again as Carlton thrives on the field. Picture: Getty Images

“It is the best place we’ve been in since I’ve been here and it’s been a lot of hard work over a lot of years to get to this point, but we feel like we’re only scratching the surface of what we can do.

“We will find ways today (at training) to keep getting better and as we keep improving our roles in the system, I feel like we will be in a strong position in the back half of the year.”

Cripps also didn’t buy into whether he was in career-best form, after queries in the past two seasons on whether he would scale his previous heights as he battled injury issues.

Carlton’s captain vowed this year to let his football do the talking after tiring of the relentless coverage about his body struggles – and his stance has not changed.

The 27-year-old is seven votes clear of Melbourne star Clayton Oliver in the AFL Coaches’ Association champion player of the year award after scoring a perfect 10 votes for his effort against the Roos.

Carlton captain Patrick Cripps is holding off on publicly discussing the Blues making the finals. Picture: Getty Images

Cripps won the Leigh Matthews Trophy as the AFL Players’ Association most valuable player in 2019, which capped consecutive All-Australian selections, so he appears to be all the way back to that form.

“I went and worked really hard in the off-season to get in a really good position to set up my year and had a really good pre-season and built a lot of chemistry with the midfielders,” he said.

“We had a really good pre-season block with the midfield group, so that cohesion is really coming out now and I feel like a lot of us are playing really good footy around the ball and complementing each other in there.

“I want to put the body stuff behind me and keep focusing forward on my footy.

“(But) it’s probably the most positive it’s been since I’ve been at the club, in terms of (me) playing well and winning games.”

Cripps again hailed new coach Voss’ impact in drawing the best out of the playing group, as well as the influence of midfield recruits Adam Cerra and George Hewett.

Originally published as Carlton defender Mitch McGovern could miss rest of the season after surgery on hamstring