Cat Egan delayed in setback with foot

Andrew Mathieson
ALL AUSTRALIAN defender Matthew Egan’s foot is back in a cast following his last ditch attempt to break into Geelong Football Club’s premiership side.
The 24 year old had been sidelined for three weeks during the finals campaign with a fractured right foot but was unable to prove his fitness to coach Mark Thompson on the eve of the grand final.
Club doctors have since decided to immobilise the entire ankle in plaster to accelerate the rate of healing in the injured bone.
Geelong assistant general manager of football operations Steve Hocking said the setback was not a re occurrence.
“There’s no major concern from our end,” he said.
“We just needed to immobilise the ankle so he wasn’t wandering around on it and doing any serious damage.”
Egan will now join Paul Chapman, Brad Ottens, Joel Selwood and Ryan Gamble in rehabilitation after the others had completed various post-season surgeries.
Hocking said Egan had the final say on returning early but the club would have overruled him if training during the final series had led to long-term problems.
“(Matthew) certainly will be delayed a little now but it’s no different to what would have happened with this injury anyway,” he said.
“The plaster cast hasn’t changed it by two or three months it’s only a matter of weeks.
“At the time he was very keen to push it around finals to get back and we had to support him on that, knowing it might cause a complication or two.
“Obviously that’s what has happened.”
Geelong will resume pre-season on November 21, with some younger players returning to the club five days earlier.
All in the rehabilitation group, including Egan, would return to the training track at the end of the month, Hocking said.