Charlie Curnow training return date set after ‘career-altering’ knee injury

Charlie Curnow’s latest injury setback has raised long-term fears for the star forward. But the big Blues finally recieved some positive news.

Will the Blues ever see the best of Charlie Curnow again? Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Charlie Curnow is the exciting young forward who can “do it all”.

Powerfully built and athletic, Carlton great Mark Maclure declared the 23-year-old was among the Blues’ top “two to three” players when he was up and going.

Trouble is, that has been some time now for the luckless Curnow and the Blues.

Curnow’s hopes of a trouble-free pre-season to attack a long-awaited Round 1 comeback in 2021 were dealt a blow this week when it emerged he had suffered another knee setback, which required more surgery.

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Curnow went under the knife on Wednesday to reinforce a bone stress injury in his patella on the troublesome right knee he last had operated on in April.

Carlton said the advice from Curnow’s orthopaedic surgeon was the operation would help “hasten his return to training and minimise the risk of further injury”.

But the news also sparked fresh fears about the lingering impact on Curnow’s career and whether his problem knee would allow him to fulfil his obvious potential.

Curnow at training. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

But in promising news Curnow is expected to resume running in January.

It is understood the latest surgery went well and Curnow could be running again in January — the month he is due back for pre-season training.

Leading sports medicine expert Dr Peter Larkins said stress injuries of the patella were not overly common in AFL, but Curnow’s latest setback was a clear sign the bone was not coping with the loads of AFL training.

Dr Larkins said the injury carried with it a greater risk of degeneration or arthritic damage and could be “career altering” for the forward.

“Once he broke the patella (last year), it changes the shape of the patella and it potentially changes the cushioning surface of the patella quite a bit,” Dr Larkins said.

“So what happened, when he got back to training after they repaired the broken patella, he was getting stress in the bone.

“That was the reason he had to back off at a fairly low level and I didn’t think that augured well when he was trying to get back in the early days of this season.

“Now that he has had a recurrence of that patella stress again, it really means that the bone is not coping with the loads of AFL training.

WATCH CURNOW SPEAK ABOUT HIS KNEE IN 2019:

“There is a lot of pressure that goes through the front of the knee and therefore through the kneecap in any sporting situation.

“When you fracture the patella you will damage the cartilage, so the likelihood of developing degeneration or arthritis goes up enormously after you break a patella bone; the ability for it to absorb shock and absorb jarring means it doesn’t like stress.

“Therefore, the way that he would go about training for the rest of his career I think could be altered … it is certainly career-altering for him.”

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It is the latest in a long line of knee setbacks for Curnow, who has not played a senior game for the Blues since Round 15, 2019.

He missed the back-half of last season with a medial ligament injury before he dislocated his kneecap playing social basketball in October.

Curnow then fractured his patella in another freak mishap in November after slipping on tiles while walking up stairs, requiring more surgery.

He underwent another round of surgery in March to remove pins and wires from the previous operations, but scans in April revealed a stress response and his season was shut down.

Senior coach David Teague would love to see his talented tall forward back on the park soon. Picture: Matt Roberts/Getty Images

Dr Larkins said surgery to reinforce the bone stress generally involved a bone graft, which could either be from another part of the body, such as the hip, or an artificial graft.

“The bone itself isn’t coping naturally, so they are trying to make it stronger,” Dr Larkins said.

“We don’t talk about this sort of injury very often …. because normally the patella doesn’t really get stress fractures.

“The last time we had someone getting stress in a patella was Tom Scully when he played at Melbourne … but he didn’t have a fractured patella, which Curnow had.

“Curnow’s patella will never look the same again on any scan or any X-ray he has for the rest of his life.”

Regardless of the level of success of Curnow’s latest surgery, Dr Larkins said he could be forced to change the way he trained for the rest of his career.

“I am concerned about his ability to absorb AFL training loads,” Dr Larkins said.

“There is a concern that he will never get back to the level of fitness required to be an elite AFL player, which he is capable of being based on talent, there is no question about that.

“But I am still looking at the upside of getting this surgery done and getting the bone strengthened up.”

Taken as a first-round draft selection at No. 12 overall in the 2015 national draft, Curnow has played 58 games and kicked 77 goals for the Blues since making his debut in 2016.

Maclure said Curnow could be one of Carlton’s most important players.

“He is a great player. He is probably in their top two or three players at the club when he is up and going,” Maclure said.

“His impact on the game is massive … and we haven’t been able to use him. That’s the problem.

“This kid can do it all. He can do it all and he’s 192cm. He’s quick and he can mark it, he can do the lot. He just hasn’t had a good run.”

Maclure said Curnow, who has a contract until the end of 2023, had time on his side to make sure he got his knee right.

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“He is a pretty powerful young man and I’m pretty certain he will get back up and play again,” Maclure said.

“He’s got some time on his hands, he’s 23. He’s not 30. If he was 30, he’d be gone.

“(Harry) McKay is very good, but you need difference. You need some speed down there … Curnow gives you a bit of that.

“But you also need some quick smalls and that’s why they went for (Zac) Williams and (Adam) Saad to get more speed.”