2017 Round 4 : Post Game thread - Carlton V Gold Coast

[Thryleon]

My opinion is formed by first hand experience.

And you mean health authorities like the UK NHS;
Now I'm no medical genius. But it seems fair to me if posters and experts freely claim missing a pre-season with injury rehab affects a player in their subsequent football season, then having a dose of glandular fever is certainly the equivalent of a pre-season interrupted by rehab and should have equal effects on performance. I can't see how these experts and posters can excuse one form of pre-season interruption and blame the other without being two-faced!

Finally, Charlie came to Carlton as an elite athlete, a kid who could run the pants off opponents and do so with considerable ease. If I recall on his first attempt he finished high in time trials, equivalent to his AFL seasoned brother. That is a great sign for a young player, it not only declares aerobic capacity but work ethic because you obviously don't get that sitting on the couch. So he still has that in him, and if he maintains the work ethic it will return. But at the moment he can barely beat a pumpkin vine off the pitch and wouldn't have enough breath left to even try and blow out a candle! That is not the Charlie Curnow we recruited, if it wasn't the Glandular Fever what is the reason for it?

This is the part that doesn't make a lot of sense.

There is no disputing that glandular fever can knock people about.

However, Charlie was an elite athletic person from an elite athletic family prior to Glandular Fever, and whilst the ongoing effects of it, may have really knocked him about it has just ticked on 12 months since it hit him.

I have no doubt that the recovery time can be great, but it would be greater for a person who wasnt an elite athlete to begin with, as they would have a strong fitness base to return to.

We don't know if he has suffered any other ill effects in the process of his recovery.

I would imagine that 12 months on, he would likely be back to fairly similar levels of fitness that he had prior to.  At the moment, he is not really showing any of that.