Injured St Kilda co-captain Jack Sinclair has revealed the severity of the damage to his calf, an injury that has never been seen before in the AFL.
Sinclair has been ruled out for the remainder of the 2026 season after suffering significant damage to the ligaments and tendons of his calf in Round 15 against the Western Bulldogs.
The Saints skipper was attempting to explode off his back foot when he went down, with initial fears centred on an achilles rupture. Those concerns were later ruled out, but further scans uncovered the rare calf injury.
"It was a bit of a funny one. It came out of the blue," Sinclair said on SEN.
"I felt great in the lead-up. The incident was pretty innocuous, going back and pushing off my back foot to go forward and just felt all the tension go my soleus shoot up into my calf, and it was pretty swollen and painful.
"That sort of torn both ligaments, lateral and medial tendons in my calf, and got tears in my soleus as well.
"Pretty significant. I don't think they've seen much of it in Australia before, definitely not in AFL. A lot of these injuries have been seen in stronger, power athletes. A lot of Rugby players, is the main one, as well as a few basketballers and soccer players.
"It'll be awhile out."
Sinclair was immediately placed in a moon boot and has been unable to drive in the early stages of his recovery.
The 31-year-old, who has largely been blessed with an injury-free run throughout his career, is expected to need at least three months to fully rehabilitate the unique injury.
"The achilles is fine," Sinclair added.
"It's looking really good on the scans. But in terms of timeframe, I think around the 12-week mark, three months. Hopefully I'll be back for the start of pre-season."
