Why Jenkins is “very concerned” about young Roo’s latest hamstring injury

George Wardlaw’s latest hamstring injury should be a huge cause for concern for North Melbourne, according to Josh Jenkins.

The 20-year-old suffered the blow at training on Wednesday, with Jenkins hearing that the injury took place at the very start of match simulation training.

It’s just the latest roadblock for Wardlaw who has a long history with hamstring concerns having suffered multiple injuries in his draft year and in his first season at the Roos, and Jenkins is concerned about the frequency of these issues.

“I'd be very concerned,” Jenkins told SEN Sportsday.

“My understanding is that it was the first centre bounce of the match practice or their stoppage work practice.

“Now, AFL clubs do extremely long warm-ups to the point where the players often will go into the sports science office and say look, ‘Is there any way we can shorten up these warm-ups?'.

“They can go for 40 minutes, these warm-ups, and you generally do a little three-way rotation when you split into groups, you do some kicking, you do some handball, you do some extra stretching.

“So, George Wardlaw would have been well and truly warmed up, but it was still injury, to my understanding, in the first match-like situation of the training session.

“So that's a concern.”

With his hamstring woes lingering, Jenkins thinks that Wardlaw and the Roos must start again with his rehab and injury prevention program given he’s played just 26 games across his first two seasons at the top level.

“He had some issues in his draft year and when he was drafted, he had some issues in his first year,” Jenkins said.

“It's just lingered, and you've only got to have a look at him with his body shape, he’s powerfully built, and he wouldn’t be the first player who is built in that manner to suffer those injuries time and time again.

“His challenge and their challenge is to just basically start again, fix him up, get his rehab and injury prevention program down pat and make sure he follows it.”

North Melbourne will hope that Wardlaw returns in time for their Round 1 clash against the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium on Saturday, March 15.