North Melbourne forward Ben Brown has been ruled out for the remainder of the 2020 season, with fears he may have played his last game for the Kangaroos, per Fox Footy's Ben Waterworth.
The Kangaroos confirmed Brown would be require an arthroscope on his injured knee, ruling out a return for this season.
The out-of-favour forward was dropped for North's clash against Adelaide, before returning to the team to face Geelong. Brown went down early into the match after sustaining a knee injury.
While Brown's initial timeline would have seen him return before the end of the season, Kangaroos boss Brady Rawlings said the club weren't ready to take any further risks.
โOur medical and strength and conditioning teams have worked very closely with Ben and had progressed him into some light running, but feel the best course of action going forward is to get a specialistโs opinion and have the knee fixed up if required,โ Rawlings said.
โWith only three games to go until the end of the year for us, some players have simply run out of time to get their fitness back up to the levels required to play, and Ben is one of those.โ
Brown remains out of contract at the conclusion of the season, but said he was committed to remain at Arden Street last month.
โTo be honest I leave that stuff to my management and the footy club. As far as I am concerned I have got an injury I have to rehab. Iโm hoping itโs not too bad and over the next couple of weeks I can get back out there and play,โ he said.
โAt the start of the year if you had have asked me โhow do you want this year to go?โ I probably wouldnโt have picked what has happened so far. But I think there are a lot of people in that boat.
โWe are working through a lot of things as a footy club and personally as well. But I am really confident in the way I go about my footy, and Iโll work hard and I am committed to this footy club, and I want to help us have the success I think we can in the second half of the year.โ
Exciting youngster Curtis Taylor has also been ruled out for the remainder of the season after battling a knee issue of his own.
โHeโs running at the moment, his straight line stuff is OK but to get up over the next two-to-three weeks we thought was going to be a bit of a push and it wasnโt a risk weโre willing to take with such a highly talented youngster,โ Rawlings said.
