You would have thought the medical staff at Richmond would have double checked their medical books or consulted eDoctor.com after their last diagnosis left the best on-baller in the country wondering how his knee managed to get caught in his hamstring. Well it seems that Matthew Richardson is now wondering how his buttock severed his hamstring tendon.
According to Richmond's medical team led by the internationally acclaimed Dr Nick Riviera along with colleagues, Dr Hackenabush & Dr Hfuhruhurr are just as puzzled. But have the backing of football manager Craig Cameron "we back our medical team and our fitness staff", may achieve little more than ensure he packs his lunchbox at the end of the season along with the coach and drug induced medical team.
In response to reporters questions about Richardson going under the knife to staple his tendon back on the bone, Cameron said; "I'm just concerned we make the right decisions and I believe we made the right decision. He had an incident in the Sydney game, in the first quarter, which is what caused this surgery he's about to have today." Good thing nobody made a bad decision when Richo complained of soreness at the back of the leg and was promptly thrown back out on the ground and even when he continued to have concerns at the end of the 1st qtr, was promptly sent back out again after the crack medical team advised the coach it was just buttock soreness. I'm sure the coach has kicked the medicos so hard since, they now know how Richo was feeling.
This follows the comedy in round one. Ben Cousins, superstar, advises the medicos that he is sore at the back of the knee, they advise him he is fine. Cousins, who has been around the traps and not too sure of the diagnosis chats with the coach. The coach chats with the doctors, who chat with each other and chat to their golf coaches and then report he is fine. Cousins runs out in the last quarter and in his first sprint, tears his hamstring and is promptly carried off.
The reassuring piece for Richmond fans was the club doctor on radio afterwards discussing the decision and telling the folks on radio "the knee and the hamstring are two different parts of the leg". Phew, lucky they have experts on hand to deal with these tricky things.
As the club doctors double check their asses from their elbows, Richmond fans must be praying the players don't report sniffly noses at the moment. Perhaps they should recruit witch doctors from Ivory Coast for a second opinion?
Ben Cousins has not played since Round 1 and had his first run in the magoos in 5 weeks on the weekend. (different medics, gave him 8 minute bursts each qtr and took him off). Richo is expected to be out for 10-12 weeks. This for a man sitting on 289 career games, with only 16 left in the season!. Can he drag the old bones out for another year?, another gruelling pre-season?
Richo may not get to play 300 games and be remembered and revered forever. For a man who would die for his club, he may have been put in an early football grave by Dr Bozo & co.
I'm sure they will end up in the same place as the St Kilda club Doctors from 2002-2003 who blamed the grass the players were training on as the reason for all the injuries.... Yep they will all end up being GP's and changing their names to Dr How Long.
Posts
