Basketball: Toe injury forces Pledger to play it safe on court
Don't expect too many alley-oops involving Alex Pledger against Sydney tonight.
The Breakers big man will be content just to play significant minutes and, in the bigger picture, remain on the court throughout the rest of the campaign.
Pledger has been crippled by a toe injury this season and surgery is the only outcome. It's a matter of when, not if, he goes under the knife, and both the player and club are hoping to postpone the operation until the off season.
But that hope is partnered with a fair share of hurt, as Pledger showed during last week's triumph over Sydney. While his teammates celebrated their fifth straight win, Pledger left the court in tears, a combination of both pain and lack of contribution to a victory the Breakers are aiming tomorrow to repeat.
"It was probably the most extreme the pain had been so far this season, coupled with about a million people asking me how it felt," Pledger said. "I guess that's where it all came from.
"It's still pretty damn sore but it's settled down from where it was on Friday. Hopefully we'll be able to push on for a little bit longer."
Pushing off is part of the problem, as Pledger explained. The injury provides little protection for his foot when running or jumping and, unfortunately for Pledger, his chosen profession relies heavily on both.
"I spoke with an orthopaedic guy and he told me that it's the last point of contact when you leave the floor," he said.
"When you're running at full speed and you jump off one foot, about 30 or 40 times your body weight goes through that one little joint. When you're 7'1" (2.16m) and 120kg, it's quite a lot of force going through a damaged joint.
"Those alley-oops that Cedric [Jackson] threw me in the couple of years when he was here, you probably won't be seeing much of that."
Pledger instead plans to accomplish the basics of his position - defending the rim, finish the easy ones around the basket, moving bodies out of the paint - and it's an output that will be valuable enough to persist with the pain.
"We believe what he's doing on the court for us is helping us," said coach Dean Vickerman.
"It's just a continual process of managing his minutes and managing his load through the week, but we're pleased the injury hasn't got any worse and I think we have a good plan to keep him going."
That prospect is dependent on the pain Pledger feels during games subsiding in subsequent days. The centre saw a surgeon this week and the injury is neither getting better nor worse, leaving the Breakers with tough decisions surrounding Pledger's involvement in forthcoming double-headers, but the pain is tolerable for the time being.
"Maybe if it still felt today like it did after the game on Friday, I don't know, I'd probably be on the operating table at the moment," he said.
"But it has recovered a little bit and that kind of pain I was feeling on Friday has dialled back down a little bit."