AFL 2024: Hawthorn forward Chad Wingard suffers calf injury
A Hawthorn veteran could face a nervous wait to determine his future after a fresh setback derailed his comeback from injury.
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Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell says Chad Wingard could miss another month of football after he suffered another calf injury in training.
Wingard, who is yet to play an AFL game in his 13th season, left the track early at Waverley Park on Thursday before scans revealed a calf tear.
The dual All-Australian has played seven VFL games this season after coming back from the ruptured achilles he suffered in round 22 last season.
The injury leaves him unlikely to break back into Hawthorn’s senior side before the season’s end when his contract expires.
Wingard, who has not played more than 17 games in a season since he joined Hawthorn in 2019, penned a one-year deal for 2024 after he found a rich vein of form in a six-game block before his injury.
The 30-year-old is an unrestricted free agent.
“He’s been a little bit sore in the calf, we just thought that it would warm up and he was a bit overloaded from his first game back for a while, and he’s had a scan and has got a little tear in there,” Mitchell told SEN on Friday.
“So that’s probably going to cost him a month, or thereabouts. We don’t have all the information at the moment.
“I feel so bad for him because he’s just worked as hard as he ever as in the time that I’ve known him to try and get himself right.
“He just deserves a genuine crack at this late part of this season after what he’s done in the last 12 months since his ruptured achilles.
“It can be a cruel game and it was cruel to him yesterday.”
Originally published as AFL 2024: Hawthorn forward Chad Wingard suffers calf injury
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