Injured Greg Bird to be ruled out of Indigenous All Stars team with knee issue. Who should he be replaced by? GOLD Coast enforcer Greg Bird is set to be the first player ruled out of the Indigenous All Stars team. Bird is on the mend from a knee injury he suffered prior to the Christmas break but he may not make a full recovery in time for the February 13 clash at Cbus Super Stadium. The 30-year-old injured the medial ligament in his knee on December 11, the same day he was stripped of the club’s co-captaincy for urinating in public. He went overseas on his honeymoon soon after and has been back in training for the past two weeks. Bird won’t play in next weekend’s Auckland Nines or the Gold Coast’s first pre-season trial against New Zealand in Toowoomba on February 7. And if he isn’t back at full fitness at least a week before the All Stars game, the NSW Origin star will be ruled out. “He’s going okay. He’s progressing nicely,” Titans coach Neil Henry said. “We’re not sure when he’ll play. “He’ll be pushing it to play in the All Stars, but we’ll see if he’s ready. “That would be at the earliest in his preparation and you’d have to say he’s doubtful for that seeing as he hasn’t done any contact and it was a six-week injury and you can only do contact after that. “But we’ll see. He’s working pretty hard on it.” Bird returned to training with the main squad this week and participated in opposed sessions with restrictions. He isn’t allowed to be involved in contact work yet and physiotherapist Greg Condon said it was touch and go he’d be fit for the All Stars. “He’s probably just on track at the moment,” he said. “If he slowed down at all he probably wouldn’t be okay. “He’s changing direction when doing skills but he needs to do contact which probably won’t happen until the week after next. “He has to do a week of contact with us after the Nines and he needs to be fine before going into camp.” It was a disappointing off-season for Bird whose off-field actions created plenty of headlines. But Henry said he was happy with how the veteran forward had returned to the club, despite the knee injury limiting his pre-season. “He’s not too bad. He’s come back and got back into the running,” he said. “I’ve been pretty happy with him. “I don’t think he’s lost too much. “He’s certainly a bit underdone at the moment but he’ll pick that up in the next few weeks.” Henry is planning on fielding his strongest team in Titans’ final trial against North Queensland in Cairns on February 21.
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 02:46:09 +0000
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