Geelong forward Gryan Miers has shared details on the knee injury that threatens to derail his season, revealing he is playing with a partially torn ACL and knows surgery could come at any point.
The 27-year-old spoke exclusively to 7NEWS chief AFL reporter Mitch Cleary about his risky decision to continue playing despite the serious injury.
"There are opinions that it is not good, but physically I feel good that maybe I am a pioneer in the way this is going in that sense, but maybe I am an idiot, so we will just wait and see," Miers said.
The Cats star returned unscathed to AFL action last week after an intense month-long training block. At one stage, he was booked to go under the knife.
"Coming back from a 12-month injury does not mean I am back to 100 per cent, so if I can get to 95 per cent here, maybe it is better than me coming off a 12-month reconstruction," he explained.
Miers also addressed rumours circulating about how the injury occurred, saying it was not really a wrestling incident.
"You can word it like that, but it was not exactly a wrestling incident. I tried to trip someone and they pulled away from me and I was like, jeez, that is not right, and that is literally it," he said.
"And then, yeah, two days later, trained, planted and was like, jeez, that is not right again."
Pain at random moments during training and two games followed, before negative scans prompted five days of intense consultation.
"I feel like I can perform because data has supported me and performance has supported me," Miers said.
The Cats face Sydney on Saturday, with Bailey Smith a confirmed starter despite a recent shoulder knock.
Meanwhile, coach Chris Scott was forced to answer questions on links to former Cats sponsor Sy Giang Nguyen. The pair were listed on a hotel booking request at Easter 2023 with football boss Andrew Mackie. Nguyen has since been accused of fraud.
"What you have described is a situation that there would be literally thousands of people participating in sort of across the AFL," Scott said.
