Injury Swan out for month (was "... battling heel and wrist issues, Body all banged up")

[didaksrightfoot]

This comment from Doc Larkins scares the life out of me "The Pies have decided Swan will undergo conservative treatment rather than surgery and he will benefit from three to four weeks unloading, but there is still some risk his heel pain may recur"
How many times have we gone down the conservative path only for it to back fire and they end up needing surgery anyway?

A number of basketball players deal with plantar fasciitis - Tim Duncan had it for a couple of years... and I think for most it is not something that you can really have surgery for or that there is any specific treatment for... you just have to deal with it until it resolves.
Whether or not there is also a small ligament tear or not may end up being inconsequential - it may not be the thing causing the pain/limitation, and if there are other issues in the foot, then having surgery will probably not resolve those.

The thing to consider with Swan as well is that, at this age, it's also hard to predict how his foot would recover post-op... the internal discussions between him and the club doctors could very well include that surgery could end up being career ending. (I have nothing to base this on - just looking at potential reasons for the clubs decisions)... the decision would come down to risks/benifits of each: rest could potentially get him back to 90%, or could do nothing. Surgery - might get him closer to 100%, might do nothing different to rest, or might end up causing more inflammation/pain/limitation in the foot... it will also 'cost' more in terms of time away from the game - and everyone involved will have to be thinking about how much longer he actually has - if this becomes his last season, I'm sure he would much rather prefer to opporunity to play a couple more games in September than finish his career on the sideline.

 

[Knightmare]

As a Chicago Bulls fan sadly I know all too much about plantar fasciitis.

Surgery isn't normally needed. Just rest and staying off your feet is needed.

It's an injury where you want to be 100% pain free and completely cleared as having no risk of it flaring up again.

If you're 90%, 95% and you try to come back it's only going to get more painful and get worse and limit your play.

It's not likely to cause you long term damage but you don't want it flaring up so the best way to go with Swan is to just rest and rest him until he's completely perfect. The only scenario you'd play him before then would be in the surprising scenario we make the grand final. It's an injury where you can play the one game with fine, you can get through it on pain killers if it gets bad but you sure as anything wouldn't want to have to get up for another game the following week.


If Swan rests up over the offseason and stays off his feet this offseason he can come back good next season and be the pre-2013 Swan.