Newtown captain Mat Skinner won’t feature for the Tigers in 2017/18 after being told on Friday he will need a knee reconstruction.
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Skinner suffered an injury while playing indoor soccer eight days ago and was handed the verdict on Friday morning when seeing a specialist in Sydney.
He is expected to go under the knife within the month and will miss the rest of the summer.
“It’s pretty disappointing,” he said.
“It’s only the first game in and I didn’t even get to play a game locally. I played rep in the first weekend and then I got injured so missed day two last week.”
It's pretty disappointing ... I didn't even get to play a game locally.
- Mat Skinner on his season-ending knee injury
The blow is a huge one for Newtown, which is already missing Mat’s brother and fellow Tigers stalwart, Steve Skinner until at least Christmas as he recovers from his own knee surgery.
This is Mat’s second knee surgery and all three Skinner brothers have undergone knee operations in recent years after Tom suffered a serious injury when playing AFL for the Dubbo Demons in 2014.
The injury means for one of the first times in recent memory Newtown will take to the field this weekend without a Skinner in the lineup.
Jordan Peacock will step up as captain and the man he replaces said everyone will have to lift against CYMS at No. 1 Oval this round, and for the rest of the season.
“We’ve still got a lot of depth but it’s going to be a real test because Steve and I have been the anchor for a long time,” Skinner said.
“It will be good for the others to step up and take on some of the top roles.”
The bowling will be particularly affected as the Skinner brothers have got through a mountain of overs regularly, with Bailey Edmunds now tasked with leading the way while Greg Kerr, Nathan Merchant and Matthew Hull offer variation.
While under strength, Skinner said his side learnt from the round one loss to Macquarie and is keen to rebound against CYMS, a side which suffered a heavy first round outright loss for the second straight season.
“Everyone realised what we did wrong and it was the same old story for us of losing wicket sin clumps,” Skinner said.
“We were 0-50 then 3-53 so that’s not ideal and we’ve been guilty of that for years.
“They (CYMS) are a better side than last round’s result. They’ve got ‘Strachany’ (Ben Strachan) back and Tommy Nelson didn’t play in round one so with those two in it’s a huge boost and they’ll be a tough team.
“Later in the season they’ll be pushing for finals, that’s what I think.”
Play starts at 1pm.