Veteran sports doctor explains latest Curnow knee setback, provides realistic timeline for return

Charlie Curnow is set to miss the start of the season after undergoing a minor procedure to remove a screw from his knee.

The 28-year-old has had his career plagued by knee issues, playing just 15 games between the start of 2019 and 2022.

However, his best footy would come following his return, winning Coleman Medals in 2022 and 2023, and leading for most of 2024 before ankle issues ended his season early.

Veteran sports doctor Peter Larkins explained why Curnow would have had a screw in his knee to begin with, and why they’ve now taken it out.

“I feel like I do an annual report on Charlie’s knees since 2019 – this is the sixth year I’ve spoken about it,” Larkins told SEN’s Sportsday.

“I’ll put my hand up and say I got it wrong because in 2021 I really felt with his patella dislocations, he had patella surgeries, he had a hamstring graft put in to hold the patella in place, he broke his patella, had to have it done again, and I’m thinking ‘this guy is going to struggle to play’.

“And then what did he do? He won two Coleman Medals. I really had to wear the egg on my face for that one.

“But I did make a comment in 2021 when he missed 18 months of footy with cartilage damage behind his kneecap, the screws and the holes were put in to hold the ligament in place, but it broke through so he had it revised again.

“The screw is really to hold the ligament and the new tissue in place.

“Only eight weeks ago he had another surgery to clean up all the rough cartilage behind his kneecap that he’s had reconstructed so it doesn’t slip out of place. I’m surprised it wasn’t done then.

“They’re saying he’ll be right for almost Round 1, which is fine when you have a December operation, but now that you’re having an operation in February to remove the screw that’s irritating the lining of the knee, it really is just one setback after another.

“I did say back then that it was a career altering, permanent injury when you’ve got arthritis behind your kneecap, you’ve broken your kneecap twice, dislocated it, so the screw is one of the fixation things to hold the fractures together, but also sometimes used to pin the ligament and the hamstring graft in place.”

Larkins believes Carlton’s timeframe of Curnow potentially being available for Round 1 is optimistic, but also not too far off the mark.

“Yeah it is (ambitious). Clubs always want to be ambitious on their injury predictions, but they're more realistic than back in the day,” he said.

“Round 2, for having a screw removed and just cleaning up the knee again for Curnow, you’d think four to six weeks. I don’t think Round 1 is realistic. He’s got to get match fit again.

“I’m sort of thinking four weeks from a standard recovery from what he’s had today.”

Four weeks would see Curnow narrowly miss Round 2’s clash with Hawthorn, while the less optimistic six-week prediction would likely put him in line for Gather Round against West Coast.

The Blues open their season in 22 days, facing Richmond in the traditional Thursday night Round 1 clash.