Adelaide’s former captain Rory Sloane has again had surgery on a detached retina in his right eye, placing his short-term AFL future in doubt.
Sloane went under the knife on Tuesday night — for a similar procedure to the one he had in 2021 — after suffering soreness following training.
“The surgery has been a success and Rory is now in recovery,” Adelaide’s high-performance manager Darren Burgess said in a statement.
“As is typical with Sloaney, he is very positive and given he has been through this before, he understands what the process will look like from here.
“He will spend the next five days recovering at home.
“Given the nature of the injury we will be guided by the specialists and his recovery before deciding on a return date for training.”
In 2021, Sloane spoke of the gravity of his initial eye injury.
“A detached retina is pretty serious,” he said at the time.
“That is something I learnt pretty quickly; without getting the proper procedure and doing the recovery right, there could have been some real long-term effects.
“That was the driving force for me – forget footy, your vision is for life.”
In August last year, Sloane suffered another scare when he was substituted out of a game with an eye complaint – although he was subsequently cleared of damaging the retina again.
The former Crows skipper also copped a fractured eye socket in 2017.
The 33-year-old is likely entering his final AFL season after signing a one-year contract extension in 2023.
What’s not to love about a Grand Final re-match? What’s even better is this game hasn’t been buried somewhere in the opening round. Instead, the Lions will host the Magpies at the Gabba to kick off Round 3 in what is, without any doubt, the must-watch game of the first month of football.
Obviously there’s no premiership cup on the line this time around, but Brisbane will be hellbent on reversing the result of their heartbreaking Grand Final loss — seriously, just go and re-watch the final two minutes again. For Collingwood, it’s an opportunity to continue the pile on and leave more doubts in the mind of Lions players and coaches, well before we get down to the pointy end of the season.
Few would argue these aren’t the two best sides in the land, so how could you pass up an opportunity to see them go head-to-head, on a Thursday night, no less? You simply can’t!
The Blues were somewhat of a trendy, niche pick heading into last season, but there will be plenty picking them to go all the way in 2024 after the club’s breakout year under Michael Voss, one which had them playing on preliminary final weekend for the first time in over two decades.
It was the Lions who ended Carlton’s fairy-tale season, but that game could very easily have gone in a different direction, particularly after the Blues kicked the first five goals to send the Gabba into disbelief. Carlton will now return to the scene of the heartbreak before we reach Round 1 and you can bet your last dollar these players have already circled it in their calendars.
Both sides play vastly different styles of football and both are among the best handful of teams in the competition. And with Lachie Neale, Patrick Cripps, Charlie Curnow, Charlie Cameron and Sam Walsh, there’s stars everywhere you look. Get the popcorn ready.
