Life member Phelan eyes pre-finals Subiaco returnSaturday, June 10, 2017 - 4:06 AM - by Chris Pike

GUN Subiaco midfielder Chris Phelan's 150th game turned into him fearing his career could be over rather much of a celebration, but he was relieved to learn he didn’t require a knee reconstruction and is eying a return before the finals.

Phelan had injured a rib in Subiaco's 39-point win over South Fremantle at Leederville Oval back in Round 9 that just happened to be the 150th game of his good mate Kyal Horsley.

That left him in doubt to get up the next week to play East Fremantle at the same venue to reach the 150-game milestone himself to earn life membership at Subiaco.

He was able get himself up to play and use some added padding over the rib to take the field against the Sharks and achieve the 150-game milestone with the subsequent life membership another addition to a career quickly filling up with impressive accomplishments.

But Phelan's day was soon over when he injured his knee to start the second quarter and initially he feared the worst.

The club's medical staff first believed that the symptoms were all pointing to Phelan rupturing his ACL which would mean a full knee reconstruction. 

In his mind, not only would have that ended his 2017 season, but also likely his career. The 28-year-old wasn’t sure if he would be willing go through the 12-month rehab with the possibility of him missing all, or at least most, of 2018 as well.

The signs had become to get better in the days after the injury and then by the time he got it scanned on Tuesday morning, it confirmed the better than expected news that the damage was to the medial and not the anterior cruciate ligament.

Phelan would still require surgery and he underwent that a couple of days later, but the prognosis is much better with him expected to be back within 12 weeks.

Looking at the fixture and realistically Phelan could be back out there for Subiaco for the Round 22 clash with West Perth at Leederville Oval.

As for the injury itself, Phelan knows it's just one of those things that can happen.

"I was worried about the rib that I hurt the week before so I had that all padded up and then to go down like that was pretty disappointing. But it's just one of those things and we still got the win so that was a positive to take out of the day as well," Phelan said.

"It was the first centre bounce of the second quarter and George Hampson got the ball in front of me. I sort of chased him and tackled him, and brought him down onto my own leg. Originally I thought he just landed on the inside of it, but there was immediately a lump there on the side. 

"I tried to run off and it felt a bit weird, but I had never had a knee injury before so I didn’t think that much of it. The physio came out and I told him to go away but at the next bounce I got the clearance and tried to run off again, but it just didn’t feel right.

"It just felt like it was falling out to the left and when I got to the bench the physio told me that he landed on the outside and it twisted in. They did their tests on it and straight away it was really loose so the doc thought it was the ACL."

The initial fears were the worst and it took a couple of days for Phelan to get some better news.

"After looking at the vision they were leaning more towards the medial so I tried to stay positive," he said.

"But originally I did think it was ACL and that my career might have been over, so it was a rough couple of days. But I was able to get in for the scan on the Tuesday morning and luckily enough it showed it was the medial."

It turned out that it happened in a tackle that Phelan laid on his 2014 premiership teammate George Hampson, now playing with East Fremantle. But there's no reason for any hard feelings.

"There was actually a little bit of push and shove with me and Georgie before that happened too but what can you do. It's just one of those things," Phelan said.

"I didn’t get to speak to him afterwards but Horse was speaking to him and he did ask how I was. He didn’t apologise or anything but he didn’t need to, because it wasn’t his fault.

"It might have been different if he ran into my leg or anything, but I was the one who brought him down onto me so it was really my own fault."

Phelan is now confident of getting back in time to play some finals and then have another crack at helping Subiaco to a fourth successive grand final.

"I saw the physio last week and he's pretty confident I'll be back within 12. The last game of the season was 14 weeks from when I had the surgery so hopefully I'll get in two or three games before the finals," he said.

"One of the other boys recently had a similar injury and was back within 12 weeks so I've been told 10-12. 

"I booked in for surgery straight away and my girlfriend's mum works for a surgeon so he sneaked me in. I wanted to get it done as soon as possible to start the recovery and give myself the best chance to get back in time for the finals."

As for the three months on the sidelines, Phelan isn’t looking forward to that but he will just get through the time the best he can.

"My mum always sprays me about being a terrible spectator so that is going to be interesting but the only game I remember missing since I was out in 2012 was the last game of last year," Phelan said.

"I had a broken foot so I missed the game but before that it wasn’t since I had my sore groins in 2012. I'm not really looking forward to having to watch the games but I think Schoey might try to get me into coaches' box, but I'm not sure I want to venture in there just yet."

Phelan's form was again outstanding before the knee injury. He was again averaging over 27 possessions and had been named in the wafl.com.au Team of the Round on five occasions.

He was happy with the form and with the way the team is travelling obviously to have now won nine straight games to be clear on top of that ladder.

He hopes that continues while he's out and when he returns.

"I think I've been pretty consistent over the last couple of years, but after I was pretty average in Round 1 when we lost to South Fremantle, I think I got going and we did as a team as well. I found some consistency again and was happy with the way my form was going," he said.

"After Round 1 we might not have been quite so confident, but things have been going pretty well since then. We've always got the confidence that we can beat any side on our day as long as we come with the right attitude. That leaves us pretty confident that again this year we can go deep into the finals, if not the grand final from here."

The 150-game milestone and now the knee injury have given Phelan some time to reflect on the remarkable way his career quickly turned once he returned after groin injuries ruined his 2012.

Since then, he has won two fairest and best awards, played in two premierships and three grand finals, represented Western Australia in his only state game and now earn life membership at Subiaco.

There were times early in his career, particularly when playing at half-back and not the midfield in his early seasons, that he didn’t think any of that would be possible.

But now even if this knee injury ended his career he could have retired content.

"I probably would have just laughed if I was told that at that time I would achieve all that, but I couldn’t be happier with the way it has gone," Phelan said.

"If I had have done my ACL the other week and my career was over, I still could have hung the boots up and been pretty happy with my career. But hopefully there is a bit more success still to come."