Two of the Bulldogs’ most feared hard men were unintentionally responsible for Luke Thompson’s season-ending injury. See the $10 million worth of talent sitting on the sidelines.
It’s now emerged friendly fire involving two of the Bulldogs’ most feared and toughest legends Mark O’Meley and Willie Mason was responsible for
Luke Thompson’s likely season-ending injury.
The two former premiership winning enforcers were on the field at training on Tuesday holding bump pads when the Englishman ran at them before falling to the turf like a sack of potatoes.
Witnesses say there was nothing malicious or intentional about the incident whatsoever, with O’Meley and Mason simply standing their ground as Thompson collided with the pads while taking a hit up off the dummy half.
But as soon as the star forward, who is in a reported $800,000 for this season, went down it was obvious the injury was serious.
Thompson was helped from the field by Mason and physio James Wall.
The Bulldogs have since confirmed that Thompson will meet with surgeons this week to work out the best plan of action to deal with the rare lisfranc foot injury.
The expectation is he will miss the entire season.
Bulldogs general manager of football Phil Gould tweeted: “Unfortunately Luke Thompson’s injury is quite serious. Prognosis is for minimum 6 months recovery. Possibly longer depending on surgery type. Very sad for Luke and the club.”
It is not expected the Bulldogs will receive salary cap relief for the accident given Thompson is off contract at the end of the season.
It’s a major setback for new coach Cameron Ciraldo ahead of his official NRL head-coaching debut when Canterbury plays Manly at 4 Pines Park on Saturday.
The irony is O’Meley and Mason were brought back to the club by Gould specifically to give the new generation an up close and personal view of what good old fashioned toughness used to look like at the Bulldogs.
Source: DT
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