There has been plenty of criticism of the clubs injury management including the return of Tom Bell after one match with a broken finger which then saw him out again for several weeks. A related criticsm has been made of Bell's level of fitness after coming back from that injury seeming to carry a bit of a gut. The comment has been made that a broken finger doesn't stop you training.
All sounded fair comment to me until I read the attached.
http://www.carltonfc.com.au/news/2014-0 ... continuityBell ... fractured a finger in round five against the Western Bulldogs.
Initially, the injury didn't seem a significant setback. After surgery to repair the fracture, Bell missed just one game, returning for the round seven clash with Collingwood.
Bell said he had felt ready to play against Collingwood but in hindsight probably should have given his finger longer to heal.
After that game, Bell's finger became infected and he needed further surgery.
Over the next eight weeks, Bell had several other surgeries – he can't remember whether he had four or five operations on the finger all up – during which time he was unable to run.
"It's been pretty challenging. I think I ended up having four or five surgeries on the finger, which got infected," Bell said.
"So I couldn't really sweat in that time, which meant I lost a bit of fitness.Make sense when you think about it - perhaps I and others owe both the medicos and Tom himself an apology.