WESTERN Bulldogs CEO Ameet Bains has offered an update on Sam Darcy\u2019s lung injury.<\/p>\n
The 19-year-old was sidelined after reporting a shortness of breath over the past week, with subsequent scans revealing a small hole in his lung.<\/p>\n
Bains revealed that the key tall played for multiple weeks with the injury as the Bulldogs will hope to have the injury recover with a rest period.<\/p>\n
The CEO is refusing to put a timeline on the former number two draft pick\u2019s recovery, but the Bulldogs hope it won\u2019t be as long as three months, the typical recovery period if surgery is undertaken.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it is [an odd injury],\u201d Bains told SEN\u2019s Whateley.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s probably laboured for two or three weeks with some breathing difficulties within the game and away from the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’d been training and playing as normal and was then subjected to a battery of tests as normally happens in that scenario.<\/p>\n
\u201cA very small hole was detected in his lungs so that will repair and the medical advice at the moment is to allow that tissue to repair normally.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just need to sit and wait without any fixed term around when that will occur.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m led to believe that if we did take the route to intervening, to repair, that it probably consigns him to a three month or so layoff.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re hoping that it’s a lot sooner than that and the fact that he was actually playing for two or three weeks [with it] gives us a bit more confidence around that.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the Bulldogs aren\u2019t certain on how the injury occurred, Bains said they\u2019ve been told such injuries can occur when a cyst bursts inside the lung, creating a hole.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t think they have absolute certainty on how it has happened,\u201d Bains said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it can sometimes be the result, as I’m told, of having like a small cyst or something like that which bursts and contributes to that [a hole].<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I’m not 100 per cent sure whether that was what happened in his case.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s clearly a super talented and young kid really, so we’ll be cautious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Darcy has six AFL games to his name since making his debut in round 21 of the 2022 season.<\/p>\n