Western Bulldogs forward Cody Weightman has detailed the extent of his knee injury as he prepares to be sidelined for the start of the 2025 season.
Weightman underwent surgery last month to address his rare congenital condition called bipartite patella, which involves a false joint that sits within his kneecap bone.
“This could be the weirdest (injury) – I’ve been a bit unlucky unfortunately and collected a fair few surgeries now in my short career so far,” he told SEN’s Sportsday on Tuesday night.
“It’s a bit of a genetic one connected to a knock I got around Christmas time and unfortunately had to go under the knife.
“I had to get a bit of my hip actually put into my knee in the end. It was a bit of a bone graft...there was a bit of missing bone in the knee where the gap was. (I also got) two pins through the parts of the knee to connect them back up.
“I think eventually I get those pins out when the bone has grown back to one.”
As the team prepares for its Round 1 clash with North Melbourne, Weightman said there was no better motivation from a recovery point of view.
“I don’t think you need too much more motivation than Round 1 at this point of the year,” he said.
“It’s also pretty exciting to see the opportunity (those injuries) that will arise for a few boys. It’d be nice to have Jonesy, Bont and the other guys out there of course, but injuries are just a part of footy so it’s about how well you can repair those injuries.
“It looks like we’ll get to have a go at it from Round 1 this year, which hopefully contributes to our depth which will be really important later in the year when we get a couple of boys back.”
Weightman said the team was keen to start their campaign on a more positive note, which they hope to do against the Kangaroos on Saturday.
“It’s hard to know whether pre-season form stacks up or not, so we’ll get a good idea against North,” he said.
“We’re looking to start our season on a bit more of the front-foot this year – we hadn’t been able to beat the Dees the last three years which hurt our momentum early.
“If we can make that happen (on Saturday) that will be nice.”
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