DISASTER has struck Cootamundra captain-coach Warren Lloyd, with his Group Nine season seemingly over before it actually started.
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In a crushing blow, Lloyd has sustained a terrible injury to the pectoral muscle and does not expect to play a premiership game this year.
“I’ve torn the pec from the bone,” a shattered Lloyd confirmed on Tuesday.
“It’s a pretty bad injury.”
Coming only months after he left Kangaroos, Lloyd’s pectoral problem is the legacy of Cootamundra’s opening trial against Camden at Les Boyd Oval two weeks ago.
Obviously hoping against hope that he may get a more favourable prognosis, Lloyd held off telling the Bulldogs players his grim news until training on Tuesday night.
The seriousness of the injury will almost certainly leave Lloyd on the sidelines for the entire season.
“It looks like I’ll be a non-playing coach,” he said.
“I’m disappointed for myself and the team.
“There’s nothing I can do about it. Injuries are part of football.”
With surgery ahead, Lloyd will face a lengthy rehabilitation and has ruled out even the faintest prospect of a comeback late in the season.
“I wouldn’t think so,” he said.
For Lloyd, the gloomy start to 2017 is in contrast to the improving fortunes of Cootamundra.
Under Lloyd’s coaching, Cootamundra has had an encouraging pre-season campaign.
The Bulldogs lost 16-12 to Camden in their first trial before beating Trundle 28-18 in a trial at Berryman Oval in Trundle on Saturday.
Lloyd and ex-Kangaroos team-mate Liam Duffy both missed the weekend trial , with Duffy set to be fit for the first round clash with Junee at Laurie Daley Oval on April 2.
Former Southcity and Temora captain-coach Daniel Fitzhenry suffered a pectoral injury in the 2013 pre-season, but managed to make it back to the field four months later.
Likewise, Junee captain-coach Matt Hands is on the mend after a pectoral muscle ended his finals campaign last year.
Lloyd replaced Simon Vanzanten in the coaching job last November.
Group Nine – round one
April 1-2
Saturday
Southcity v Kangaroos at Harris Park
Sunday
Temora v Albury at Nixon Park
Gundagai v Young at Anzac Park
Junee v Cootamundra at Laurie Daley Oval
Tumbarumba v Tumut at Tumbarumba Showground
Bye: Brothers
