Angus bull, Te Mania Emperor E343, underwent knee surgery to repair an ACL injury

IT turns out star Angus bull, Te Mania Emperor E343, and former Melbourne player David Schwarz have a lot in common.

Prize bull: Emperor had reconstructive knee surgery last week. Picture: Mitch Bear

IT turns out star Angus bull Te Mania Emperor E343 and former Melbourne AFL ­player David “The Ox” Schwarz have much in ­common.

Emperor, who was bought for $91,000 in 2011, suffered an ACL (knee) injury recently — The Ox suffered three in his career.

PICTURES: Emperor's knee surgery

And now 1250kg Emperor has had a knee reconstruction in the hope he can continue to work in future.

The unlikely patient was operated on at the Geelong Veterinary Clinic last week, after sustaining an accidental injury in the paddock.

The rising five-year-old bull was operated on by three veterinary surgeons, who used 700-pound Marlin fishing line and stainless steel plates to stabilise the joint.

While the operation, which cost about $5000, is common in dogs, it is unusual for a bull, mostly due to the sheer size and weight of the animal.

Owned by a syndicate headed by Murdeduke Angus, stud manager Simon Falkiner said the operation was a nervous three hours.

“If he was just any bull we wouldn’t have fixed it, but ­because of his value we ­wanted to try,” Simon said.

And with an order from Chile through last week for 2500 straws of Emperor’s semen, Simon said his genetics were expected to have a big impact on the industry.

Anaesthetists from Melbourne University helped with the experimental surgery, which will involve growing new tendon cells from the biopsy and inserting them into the joint at a later date.

Simon said they hoped Emperor would recover enough for them to collect semen from him and be mated to a small number of special cows under super­vision.

Murdeduke Angus will offer 20 sons of Emperor at its annual bull sale tomorrow with Emperor expected home by Friday.