Cora Staunton will require surgery on the broken nose sustained in her club Greater Western Sydney Giants’ win over Collingwood last weekend, writes Larry Ryan.
Cora Staunton will require surgery on the broken nose sustained in her club Greater Western Sydney Giants’ win over Collingwood last weekend.
But it won’t keep her out of next Sunday’s clash with Adelaide.
And the decision to postpone her operation has helped the woman who broke her nose escape with a one-match ban.
It’s the fourth time in her career that the Mayo legend has broken her nose, but Staunton told The Ladies Football Show on The42.ie that medics at the Sydney club have cleared her to play on.
“I saw a specialist in Sydney on Monday morning and saw the chief medical officer of the club on Tuesday. It’s broken. I knew myself. I didn’t need a specialist to tell me.
“Surgery will be required to fix it. It’s the fourth time I’ve broken it so it’s nothing major. I’ve been medically cleared to play at the weekend.
“I’m hoping to have surgery when the season finishes, sometime at the end of March.”
Staunton discussed the option of playing wearing a protective mask but has decided to go without. And her swift return to action has helped Collingwood’s Sophie Casey, who has accepted a one-match ban for the
incident.
“The opponent that hit me was reported for striking at a medium grade. They would have rung our team doctor to see what the update was on me. If I was having surgery on Tuesday, or had been knocked out or
concussed, she would have got a longer ban. But since I’m not having surgery now, she got a shorter ban.”
It’s a lenient punishment for dangerous use of the elbow, but Staunton won’t be nursing a grudge.
“From talking to the girls, they think a three-match ban was a fair outcome. But these things happen. It’s difficult at the time. You’re obviously a bit annoyed but you have to just forget about it.
“All I’m worried about is getting back on the pitch as quickly as I can.
“I don’t know any of the girls here. You can’t really hold gripes. If I saw her walking down the street I probably wouldn’t know her. All I know is she was number 23.”
A bloodied Staunton was pictured with Olympic medallist Sonia O’Sullivan after the game and revealed that O’Sullivan addressed the Giants dressing room.
“Alan (McConnell, Giants coach) asked me to bring her down into the dressing room. It’s kind of a tradition when you win your match that family and friends are allowed come into the dressing room and sing
the club’s theme song.
“Sonia spoke for a couple of minutes about the importance of women’s sport, that she never got the opportunity growing up to be involved in a team sport and spoke about how one of her first ever runs in
Melbourne was in the stadium we played at when there were 17,000 people there to watch her.”
Staunton also revealed she will make a swift decision about her future in a Mayo shirt once the AFLW campaign is over.
“I’ll be due an operation here before I leave so I’ll need a couple of weeks to recover from that.
“The decision won’t be left long. I’m not going to let it linger. I’ll certainly have decided by May 1.”
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
