POWER utility Chad Cornes will not have surgery on his troublesome knee unless it is absolutely necessary according to coach Mark Williams.
Cornes has managed the injury since 2005 and despite carrying separate knee, calf and finger complaints, has not been ruled out of this week’s clash with the Western Bulldogs in Darwin.
“I talked to Chad and he had an MRI scan with the view of comparing his knee to a couple of years ago when it initially hurt,” Williams said.
“The scans showed there wasn’t that much difference, so it actually clouds [the situation] rather than making it clearer.
“He won’t train Wednesday and we’ll make a decision on Thursday as to whether he plays this week or not.”
Williams has already indicated several players will soon go under the knife in preparation for season 2009, but Cornes will not endure another surgical procedure simply because the Power are out of finals contention.
“Basically it’s a lateral cartilage and, if you’re comparing the lateral and medial, the lateral is the one that causes the most trouble in recovery,” Williams said.
“Do they do the surgery or not? They probably err on the side of not doing it if they can get away with it.”
Williams would not discuss the futures of veterans Brendon Lade and Peter Burgoyne except to say no decisions would be made on either player until the end of the year.
Damon White and Nathan Lonie, on the other hand, will play for their careers in the remaining nine rounds.
The Power will make two forced changes to the team that tackles the Dogs this week with Steve Salopek (achilles strain) and Burgoyne (hamstring) both expected to be sidelined for at least two weeks, but Williams predicted even more outs as the club prepares to delist players for more picks in this year’s bumper draft.
“We want to see Damon White and Nathan Lonie and see if we want to keep them on the list, so we want to give them the opportunity to play,” Williams said.
“We want to see Greg Bentley. We want to see Fabian Deluca, we want to see Nathan Krakouer and we want to see if Marlon Motlop and Mitch Farmer can play.
“Adam Thomson is another one, but I think he got injured on the weekend, so that will make it difficult to get in.
“The opportunity for anyone to get in the side has certainly increased now compared to what it was. We really look with interest because those guys come in with so much energy, enthusiasm and excitement to show what they can do.
“We’ve done this before. In fact, in 2006 when we went to Darwin we put some young blokes in that side and got some great results. We hope we can do the same this week.”
