JACK Riewoldt was so desperate to face Hawthorn on Sunday he tried to visit three eye specialists in search of the all-clear.
Riewoldt suffered a cut to his cornea at training last week that caused bleeding into his eye and required surgery. He missed last week’s win over Gold Coast and was last night ruled out of the team that will take on the Hawks at the MCG.
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He was “pretty close” to playing, coach Damien Hardwick said today, and yesterday went on the hunt for a doctor that would give him the answer he wanted.
“A couple more days and some training and he might have been available to play, but it’s one of those ones where it’s a pretty delicate area of the body we really wanted to make sure we look after,” Hardwick said.
“He not only went to one doctor, he went to two and then he was looking for a third to try and get the response he was after — that’s how desperate he was to play.
“He’s an important player for us and we didn’t want to risk any further damage. He should be available to play next week.”
Jack Riewoldt couldn’t convince Damien Hardwick to let him play against Hawthorn.Source:AAP
Hardwick said the team can take heart from the fact it managed to get the job done without a recognised key forward last week against the Suns.
“We still managed to have 30 shots on goal — our accuracy wasn’t quite to the level that we’d like, but our ability to move the ball inside 50 was good,” he said.
“We’re going to miss him again this week and we look forward to welcoming him back next week.”
Dion Prestia has to get through this morning’s training session at Punt Rd before his spot in the final 22 is cemented, having missed last week with leg trouble, while Hardwick conceded that potential debutant Jack Graham is “less likely than more likely” to play against the Hawks.
Originally published as Two doctors knock back Jack
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