Tom Mitchell, recovering from a broken leg and now a Hawk until the end of 2023

[Xtreme]

I would love nothing more then the club appointing him captain in the next few days.

Screw the secret ballot.

Give him something to be happy about and make the other boys vice captains.

I nominate Jason Dunstall!

 

[macdaddio]

Still hoping to wake up and it’s all just a very bad dream

 

[Bedi]

It's silly. Sammy Mitchell is now a coach.

Remember when Plugger came back. T'was sad.

Conversely Fish went alright for his year back at Essendon

 

[CD Xbow]

For those taking about stress fractures and breaks. What Tom has couldn’t be one.

The tibia is load bearing. You can develop a stress fracture in that from running.

A fib is not load bearing. Stress fractures caused in those generally come for muscular pull on the bone.

Basically they are both overuse but have different pathologies.

For both to develop in sync is difficult.

Next a stress fracture - you know you have it. Reactions are noticeable but can be ignored. Fractures are a deep and exquisite pain. He would know if he had 2.

Next - I’ve had a stress fracture in a tib develop further. It’s painful - but you ain’t getting an ambulance and geeen whistle. You hobble off like croad in 08.

Tom has had an impact related break. The impact was bad enough to crack both bones.

Accedents happen. Hope they are clean and away from the muscle attachment points. So not near knee or ankle.

For example mine was on the tib post. That a good spot but I still had a year of issues. Mine also was not clean through like his.

Spies tell me a clean tib & fib break, not compound, and not involving the syndesmosis, if true could be back before the end of the season.

 

[Simon_Nesbit]

Oppy, good name for a surgeon....

...better than Oopsy anyway.

"Paging Dr. Oopsy to Emergency, Dr. Ooopsy"

 

[lethalselbow]

Conversely Fish went alright for his year back at Essendon

Still a silly idea.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Can I just point out that the media sucks? Sensationalist scum suckers.

They talked about a screen being thrown up around Mitchell like he was a horse about to be shot. And then this article from afl.com.au (http://m.afl.com.au/news/2019-01-12/mitchell-on-the-mend-after-surgery-on-broken-leg) publishes this picture.



They are obviously providing shade for a guy with a broken leg, not screening prying eyes from witnessing a bullet to the brain.

Lame.

 

[Bedi]

Still a silly idea.

probably. Desperate times tho...

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

I see lots of people comparing Tom’s break to other players who have had similar injuries and I understand that, but people need to also remember this is Tom Mitchell’s break and it is unique to him, as will be his recovery.

He will progress through the healing and rehab process as his body determines.

One other thing, I’m not really concerned about whether he will “come back as good as he was” like some others are, mainly because Tom is a pure footballer.
He has smarts to know where to be and he has the footy nous to have become such a brilliant player without any blessings of height, speed or extraordinary skill.

Basically, if we just give this guy the treatment and rehab that he needs and let time do it’s thing he’s a more than a strong chance of coming back as every bit the player he was before he went down.

 

[Bugs1977]

I see lots of people comparing Tom’s break to other players who have had similar injuries and I understand that, but people need to also remember this is Tom Mitchell’s break and it is unique to him, as will be his recovery.

He will progress through the healing and rehab process as his body determines.

One other thing, I’m not really concerned about whether he will “come back as good as he was” like some others are, mainly because Tom is a pure footballer.
He has smarts to know where to be and he has the footy nous to have become such a brilliant player without any blessings of height, speed or extraordinary skill.

Basically, if we just give this guy the treatment and rehab that he needs and let time do it’s thing he’s a more than a strong chance of coming back as every bit the player he was before he went down.

Well said

 

[hawkmang]

The knock on a lot of players who return from similar injuries is that they lose their top end speed, which is only a massive issue if that was one of your main attributes (see: Adam Cooney). Tom’s best work is done at the bottom of a pack and working out of stoppages not striding down a wing. I’m bullish on his recovery and future prospects.

If there’s one thing we know about Tom it’s that he’s meticulous and OCD about everything football/conditioning so you can bet his rehab will be second to none, he’ll be doing everything possible to get back as soon, and as strong as possible.

 

[Brant]

Still a silly idea.

Reminds me of how silly an idea it was to draft a 120kg Stewie Dew!

 

[westhawk]

Dr Andrew Oppy is one of the best orthopaedic surgeons in the country who specialises in fracture trauma, so Mitch couldn’t be in better hands. If the breaks were clean as they say and there was no other complications, then he is a chance to return later in the year. Will well and truly be in a solid running program by then.

 

[RobRocket]

Saints fan, so sorry for the intrusion. But this is devastating seeing great players such as Nic Nat, Docherty and Tom Mitchell have to miss seasons. Tom Mitchell is one of my favourite players from an opposition club. Just going through my Fb feed, and it’s really sad seeing all of these trolls , joking about this and making references to the Majak Daw incident. Purely sickening!


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Simon Crawshay]

The problem with losing Mitchell for the year is that over the last 2 years our midfield has been erratic. Some weeks they match it with the best, other weeks they can get well beaten.
The only mid on our list who I was confident of producing a consistent 25 plus disposal game every week was Tommy (actually more like 35 plus per week!).
It will be a real challenge to our midfield group to now reduce the gap between their best and worst performances which is the hallmark of pretty much most of the top 8 sides in the comp.

 

[TylerDurden]

Dr Andrew Oppy is one of the best orthopaedic surgeons in the country who specialises in fracture trauma, so Mitch couldn’t be in better hands. If the breaks were clean as they say and there was no other complications, then he is a chance to return later in the year. Will well and truly be in a solid running program by then.

This. Don’t be surprised that if we’re a chance to play finals, that this bloke will step up his rehab.

He’s fanatical. Just watch.

 

[SuperSic]

Starting to think that Mitch going down this year might not be as bad as it first seemed.

I don’t believe 2019 was going to be a premiership year for us and so Mitch going down now is not the end of the world. In fact I actually see this injury accelerating our progress to our next premiership.

There are three outcomes from this season:
1. We discover a young gun midfielder who will have a successful and prosperous career in the brown and gold (Worpel, Cousins, Howe, Moore or Minch).

2. We realise that some of our young midfielders are not up to scratch and will not be involved in our next premiership. This will accelerate the list management process and Allow the club to plan to build an even stronger midfield through the off-season.

3. We both discover some guns and expose those who are not up to it.

The third option is the most likely, but in any case I think the club will be in a better position by the time Mitchell returns. He will come back into a side with greater midfield depth made up of either young kids at the club right now who have been exposed to a decent amount of senior footy, or new talent that we have found from elsewhere.

 

[OnceKicked50]

Why are so many suggesting he will play in 2019? False hope. He won't.

I'm not sure why some are hysterical he will never be the same player, once more, a broken leg, even tib and fib (that is supposedly a clean break), is not going to have any long term impacts.

Mitchell will spend 2019 recovering and should be ready for pre-season with little complications. Further, as Abasi suggested, Mitchell doesn't rely on athleticism to impact games the way he does. I'd expect he returns to his very best mid-way through 2020.

Does anyone see any left field options to spend more time in the midfield? Bruest has been tried and it just doesn't work. Can Hardwick role through there? Is Nash an option thinking really outside the box? Is Morrison still too slight to spend time there?

Worpel aside, we lack young mids coming through with the potential to be elite. Cousins and Howe are AFL quality, but I think we know what we will get from them and ideally in a quality team they are not starting mids. Suggestions of Mithchington, who was delisted by ******* St Kilda, is believing in unicorns kind of stuff.

Moore and Hanrahan have potential, but firstly they need to get games at AFL level as small forwards. Neither has played predominately as a mid at Box Hill and moving on O'Rourke and Lovell may have had this in mind to give each more time in the midfield at VFL level.

The draft miss on Lovell really hurts in this scenario.

I'm all for having a positive outlook, but for me, the reality is we have lost an irreplaceable player in the area of the ground we are extremely light on and have little coming up from Box Hill; it's best to remember our mids at Box Hill were Cousins, Lovell, O'Rourke, Whitecross and Andrew Moore.

It's going to be interesting to see what Clarko comes up with.

 

[Snake_Baker]

Some punter on the news said he saw him do it. Just changed direction and they broke. Can anyone confirm?

I find that hard to believe.

Shithouse luck for a bloke at the very top of his game, we are going through the same with Maj (lesser player than Mitchell of course, but was at the top of his game)

The fans have to look for a silver lining when this type of harsh setback occurs. We will be looking for Ben McKay to step up, and this provides a stage for James Worpel to step forward.

 

[Off The Couch]

What a weird tweet - what else other than operate were they going to do and I can’t see how operating a day earlier brings him back “maybe” this season.

Accepting Tom is done for the season is the best option imo, otherwise we end up with the Fyfe situation where he is rushed back and it all goes sout and he misses even more time.

Journo’s always looking for that something different with their stories and failing

 

[DannyJ]

Cousins now has a massive opportunity to prove he has an AFL career ahead if him.

Dominated VFL, had a couple of years in the system. Hes certainty nowhere near Tom, but hes an accumulator

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

 

[Mrzohs]

,

What a weird tweet - what else other than operate were they going to do and I can’t see how operating a day earlier brings him back “maybe” this season.

Accepting Tom is done for the season is the best option imo, otherwise we end up with the Fyfe situation where he is rushed back and it all goes sout and he misses even more time.

Journo’s always looking for that something different with their stories and failing

it makes no difference, they have probably done a bit more homework on the injury rather than printing the first thing that comes to mind or draws a headline and realised he could feature later in the year if everything went well and we were in finals contention.

like u said assume he out for the yr and its a bonus if we get him back

 

[Kil Phearns]

Calling them journos is being exceptionally kind...

Footy media is such a troll factory nowadays - in fact, you could say that about sports media in general. All clickbaiters and outrage merchants.

 

[Bugs1977]

,


it makes no difference, they have probably done a bit more homework on the injury rather than printing the first thing that comes to mind or draws a headline and realised he could feature later in the year if everything went well and we were in finals contention.

like u said assume he out for the yr and its a bonus if we get him back

I have full confidence that he’ll be fully healed before the end of the season however it’s not just the healing part that he has to get right. He’ll have to also work through the mental side of things and one would think sometime during next offseason he’ll end up getting any metal plates out via another operation which is no biggie.

The real issue I think will be the fitness side of things where he’d have to do a mini preseason if there was any chance of him coming back. I remember reading that players are more susceptible to injuries like an ACL in something like the first 5-8 games but once they get past that then the % drops dramatically.

I think you’ll find that no matter whether we make finals or not that unless he can achieve that mini preseason without any hiccups then it’s probably 90-10% chance that they’ll put him on ice for next year. This season will be more so about seeing how our younger brigade deal with adversity warts and all which shouldn’t be underestimated. If anyone can push the envelope on an early return then it will be Tom but maybe he’ll have those in know around him to look at the bigger picture.

 

[grumbleguts]

So I found this on facebook