Matt King admits he’s bitterly disappointed to be sidelined with a broken arm for the remainder of South Sydney’s finals campaign, but says events at the Port Adelaide AFL club this week have put his injury woe into perspective.
King played on for 10 minutes, unaware he’d broken his right arm in Souths’ disappointing 24-6 loss to Melbourne on Saturday, and was later pictured in tears as he realised the extent of his injury in the AAMI Park sheds.
“I did it when I was tackling Sisa Waqa, he moved on me pretty late and I think threw my arm into his elbow,” King told AAP.
“At first I thought it was just a cork, and I got through a couple of hit-ups and then realised something was wrong.”
The death of Port Adelaide’s John McCarthy on an end-of-season trip with teammates in Las Vegas stunned the Australian sporting community this week and King said it makes his setback look irrelevant.
“It was pretty upsetting, but I am keeping things in perspective … look at what happened down at Port Adelaide. That is a true tragedy,” he said.
“I’ve only broken my arm, but I still have my health and went home to my wife and little girl so life is not that bad.”
The disappointing performance by Souths extended their wretched run in finals, which has seen them fail to win a play-off game since 1987 when home games were still played at Redfern Oval.
King’s absence will be a big blow to the side and there was speculation on Wednesday that coach Michael Maguire is pondering switching Greg Inglis back to centre to add some experience with Nathan Merritt moving to fullback.
Andrew Everingham was named as King’s replacement in the centres on Tuesday and the former representative star has every confidence the winger will do a good job if he does play there.
“Just when you think the stage doesn’t get much bigger for him he has to play in a position he hasn’t played in too much in his first year in first grade,” King said.
“But he’s 25 and has some life experience behind him which will stand him good stead.
“And he is a kid who will put his head down and bum up and work extremely this week to get himself ready.”