FREEMAN OFF TO GERMANY FOR HAMSTRING FIX

[saintsRrising]

St Kilda’s Nathan Freeman will next week head to a clinic in Germany in an attempt to finally overcome his ongoing hamstring issues.

Read more: https://www.sen.com.au/news/2016/11/03/ ... tring-fix/
BY RUSSELL HOLMESBY

[Impatient Sainter]

Positive step by the club - best chance of him making back to full speed!

[shrodes]

That precision German engineering will have him in the best 22 in no time.

[Enrico_Misso]

Nathan "next year" Freeman!

[Playon]

Yes... Finally..

The pies were going to send him there had he of remained on their list. I don't know why we thought by doing nothing would solve his issues.
Had we of done it last year he may of been available for pre-season.

[SuperDuper]

Yes... Finally..

The pies were going to send him there had he of remained on their list. I don't know why we thought by doing nothing would solve his issues.
Had we of done it last year he may of been available for pre-season.

I am hoping this is a pro-active move by the club, not a re-active one..
i.e. that things are going well for the bloke... and not that he has had a recent issue that lead to this trip..

Either way it is a good idea... if he is going well and feeling strong then even better

[White Winmar]

He'll be back in two weeks.

[dragit]

Yes... Finally..

The pies were going to send him there had he of remained on their list. I don't know why we thought by doing nothing would solve his issues.
Had we of done it last year he may of been available for pre-season.

Agree, it does seem strange that we haven't done this earlier… three years straight of the same issue.

[White Winmar]

He'll be back in two weeks.

[SaintPav]

Yes... Finally..

The pies were going to send him there had he of remained on their list. I don't know why we thought by doing nothing would solve his issues.
Had we of done it last year he may of been available for pre-season.

Who says he won't be ready for per-season?

Trip is probably part of his program and most likely planned as preparation for per-season.

[Saint wagga]

It's reactive and proof the club are very concerned they have made zero progress. Not a good sign

[saintspremiers]

It's reactive and proof the club are very concerned they have made zero progress. Not a good sign

Agree.

Hard to imagine him being a superstar midfielder now. Just getting AFL games of any description under his belt would be an big achievement from here.

Draft wise he's cost us pick 31 this year so not a disaster

[magnifisaint]

It's reactive and proof the club are very concerned they have made zero progress. Not a good sign

is that just your opinion?

[tony74]

Yes... Finally..

The pies were going to send him there had he of remained on their list. I don't know why we thought by doing nothing would solve his issues.
Had we of done it last year he may of been available for pre-season.

Who says he won't be ready for per-season?

Trip is probably part of his program and most likely planned as preparation for per-season.

That's the correct scenario.

[8856brother]

He has a long, long way to go from his underwhelming performances at VFL level this year. Underwhelming is being pretty kind.

We've payed the same for Freeman as we did for Steele and I personally think we paid well overs for Nathan. Will be interesting to review in 5-6 years.

Hope he can get his body and confidence working again. Good luck to the kid and the club.

[beebarry]

Great to hear Tony74. I dont think Im being overly optimistic in thinking the club still has a good degree of confidence that Freeman can be an A grader....i think so too, even with such little exposed form. He will be a super important part of a very good midfield if he can get his body right. Outside speed is what we need !

[minneapolis]

Great to hear Tony74. I dont think Im being overly optimistic in thinking the club still has a good degree of confidence that Freeman can be an A grader....i think so too, even with such little exposed form. He will be a super important part of a very good midfield if he can get his body right. Outside speed is what we need !

It is understandable that people trade in hope but the facts do not support it. He has been with us for a year now and I do not see any evidence that the problem is being solved. I think that the trip to Germany confirms the hypothesis that progress has not been as hoped. Very sad.

[SaintPav]

Great to hear Tony74. I dont think Im being overly optimistic in thinking the club still has a good degree of confidence that Freeman can be an A grader....i think so too, even with such little exposed form. He will be a super important part of a very good midfield if he can get his body right. Outside speed is what we need !

It is understandable that people trade in hope but the facts do not support it. He has been with us for a year now and I do not see any evidence that the problem is being solved. I think that the trip to Germany confirms the hypothesis that progress has not been as hoped. Very sad.

Not sad at all but jeez if you think that's sad.

Freeman will be a bonus as most of us have probably not factored him coming good.

It will be great if he does.

"It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything" - Fight Club

[desertsaint]

He has a long, long way to go from his underwhelming performances at VFL level this year. Underwhelming is being pretty kind.

We've payed the same for Freeman as we did for Steele and I personally think we paid well overs for Nathan. Will be interesting to review in 5-6 years.

Hope he can get his body and confidence working again. Good luck to the kid and the club.

we paid massive overs for him, given he has not seen afl action, and unlikely to see much, if any next year - that's two of his three years right there. big gamble, still have fingers crossed it will all work out and we'll get value from him.

[Con Gorozidis]

Is this good news or bad news?
Good we are being proactive.
Bad we are still in this situation and our medical team is seemingly all out of ideas to fix it themselves....
Must be some kind of treatment.
But if he runs out there at full pace in Rd 1 it will be worth it.

[Legendary]

From someone I've spoken to (club director), this was part of the strategy to manage his injury.

Our club's medical staff wanted to spend this year starting from scratch to rebuild and strengthen his hamstrings correctly, and understand where the weaknesses were. The end result of that process (as I had understood it) was always to send him overseas once the club had a handle on his physical condition.

The guy played more VFL games for us this year than he played in 2 years at the Pies - I reckon our guys are doing something right?

[Griggsy]

So what can they do over there that we can't somewhere in Australia? Assuming he is just going to be on a stringent exercise regiment with some scans thrown in.

News on BF is he has been spotted in a gym working legs quite a bit so I don't see why he wouldn't be ready come next season.

[whiskers3614]

Pity Christian Barnard died or we could have sent him to Germany via a pit-stop in South Africa!

[dragit]

From someone I've spoken to (club director), this was part of the strategy to manage his injury.

Our club's medical staff wanted to spend this year starting from scratch to rebuild and strengthen his hamstrings correctly, and understand where the weaknesses were. The end result of that process (as I had understood it) was always to send him overseas once the club had a handle on his physical condition.

The guy played more VFL games for us this year than he played in 2 years at the Pies - I reckon our guys are doing something right?

I value your input here legendary but… I do wonder how many times he needed to re-tear the same strings this year before we decided to go for the super treatment.

Let's all hope this treatment works wonders, he could be a vital cog for us.

[Con Gorozidis]

From someone I've spoken to (club director), this was part of the strategy to manage his injury.

Our club's medical staff wanted to spend this year starting from scratch to rebuild and strengthen his hamstrings correctly, and understand where the weaknesses were. The end result of that process (as I had understood it) was always to send him overseas once the club had a handle on his physical condition.

The guy played more VFL games for us this year than he played in 2 years at the Pies - I reckon our guys are doing something right?

I value your input here legendary but… I do wonder how many times he needed to re-tear the same strings this year before we decided to go for the super treatment.

Let's all hope this treatment works wonders, he could be a vital cog for us.

Plan A would have been recovery using conventional methods.
Germany would have been Plan B. Which I guess is kind of the same thing as saying 'we planned this all along'. But not quite. It was probably planned all along - but as Plan B. Slight nuance and maybe I am being pedantic. But I wouldnt be saying everything is completely rosy and under control yet.

Anyway here is some background reading:

https://www.thieme-connect.de/DOI/DOI?1 ... 30-1269862

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/others ... dream.html