Kookaburras injury toll continues

Injuries have continued to hamper the Kookaburras as they begin their 12 month count down the 2012 London Olympics, with two more players ruled out of their upcoming month long tour of Europe due to injury.

Midfielder Tim Deavin and striker Kieran Govers have been sidelined with Deavin having a stress fracture and Govers a hamstring tear.

Joel Carroll has also been affected by injury, and will now only compete in the second half of the tour due to a hamstring injury.

These players will join a long list of casualties for the Kookaburras which includes several key players such as Des Abbott, four time world player of the year Jamie Dwyer and 2010 Kookaburras player of the year Graeme Begbie who are all recovering from long term injuries. Veteran striker Grant Schubert has also been sidelined for a substantial period with an achilles injury while penalty corner specialist Luke Doerner has recently undergone hip surgery.

A cautious approach has also been taken with Liam De Young and Rob Hammond to monitor recent hamstring injuries that are not considered serious.

Despite the long list of injuries Charlesworth says the Kookaburras preparation for the remainder of the year and towards the 2012 London Olympics is still well on track.

“Obviously none of these injuries are ideal and we would like to have every player available. However that isn’t the case so we will monitor each player carefully and take a cautious approach. Fortunately the first six months of this year has been quiet for us and the London Olympics is still some time away, so we want to take care of these injuries now. I expect to have the majority of players, including the likes of Abbott, Dwyer and Begbie who have been sidelined for some time, back in the team within the coming months in plenty of time for the Champions Trophy in December,” said Charlesworth.

In positive news four young players will be given an opportunity to prove themselves against some world class teams, helping grow the depth of the Kookaburras squad which is already considered to be the strongest in world hockey.

WA’s Chris Bausor will make his international debut while Ian Burcher, Tim Bates and Matt Gohdes have also been called into the team for the European tour.

Charlesworth said this would give the Kookaburras a chance to further strengthen their depth, something that has been a key to the Kookaburras in recent years.

“At this stage we have many players who have only played 10-20 games. It is important that we continue to get games into these players so that if we continue to get injuries we will have players who can step right into that role and the team won’t be effected,” said Charlesworth.

The Kookaburras will play two test matches against Spain between July 14-16 before competing in a 4 Nations tournament in Monchengladbach, Germany against Germany, Spain and the Netherlands.

They will then travel to Paris to compete in a 5 Nations Challenge tournament between France, Korea, Argentina and Ireland.

Due to last years hectic schedule in which the Kookaburras became the first team in history to win the World Cup, Champions Trophy and Commonwealth Games in the one year, the Kookaburras schedule in 2011 has been quiet to date. However this European tour will begin a busy period for the Kookaburras which will include the Oceania Cup and International Super Series in October and then the Champions Trophy in India in December.

European Tour schedule:
Depart Perth – July 9^th

Test v Spain – July 14^th
Test v Spain – July 16^th

4 Nations tournament, Monchengladbach
v Netherlands – July 21^st
v Germany – July 23^rd
v Spain – July 24^th

5 Nations Challenge, Paris
v Ireland – July 27^th
v Argentina – July 28^th
v Korea – July 30^th
v France – July 31^st