By Steve Larkin, Aap
Adelaide’s former captain Rory Sloane has again had surgery on a detached retina in his right eye, placing his short-term AFL future in doubt.
Sloane went under the knife on Tuesday night for the same procedure he had in 2021 after suffering soreness following training.
“The surgery has been a success and Rory is now in recovery,” Adelaide’s high-performance manager Darren Burgess said in a statement.
“As is typical with Sloaney, he is very positive and given he has been through this before, he understands what the process will look like from here.
“He will spend the next five days recovering at home.
“Given the nature of the injury we will be guided by the specialists and his recovery before deciding on a return date for training.”
In 2021, Sloane spoke of the gravity of his initial eye injury.
“A detached retina is pretty serious,” he said at the time.
“That is something I learnt pretty quickly; without getting the proper procedure and doing the recovery right, there could have been some real long-term effects.
“That was the driving force for me – forget footy, your vision is for life.”
In August last year, Sloane had another scare when he was substituted out of a game with an eye complaint, although he was subsequently cleared of damaging the retina again.
The 33-year-old, likely entering his final AFL season after signing a one-year contract extension in 2023, also suffered a fractured eye socket in 2017.
“He has had a lot of injuries to his eyes and been very unlucky,” Adelaide ruckman Reilly O’Brien told reporters on Wednesday.
“Sloaney is a super-positive guy, he has been through a lot of setbacks.
“His love for the club and love for footy is so, so strong … I’m confident we will see him back.”.
Meanwhile, Crows midfielder Jake Soligo will likely miss the next fortnight of training after injuring an ankle on Wednesday.
And creative halfback Wayne Milera, sidelined by a second hamstring strain this pre-season, is expected to miss at least the next two weeks of training.
