Carlton coach David Teague has apologised for denying a report which suggested Patrick Cripps was playing through a fracture in his back.
Cripps' form has been a major talking point given he is out of contract at the end of the year, and a report from The Age revealed why his output had been down in the first eight games in 2021.
However, Teague strongly refuted the report, claiming Cripps was "fine" and did not have a fractured back.
Following his side's 26-point loss to Melbourne, Teague admitted that he had gotten it wrong in his mid-week media conference.
"It was probably one of my worst press conferences," he conceded.
"I thought the injury was in the past. It hampered him in rounds two and three, so when it got brought up I was probably a bit frustrated and I probably wasn't as honest and direct as I could've been.
"At the end of the day, the message I wanted to get across was that he's fine now. I could've been clearer with the messaging around that, but for me, the fans need to know that he's right and he's out there.
"I knew the full extent (of the injury), but I thought it was in the past. At the start of the year, I probably didn't share it a lot because you want to protect your player.
"This one, the frustration probably came from (the fact that) it was in the past and we were dragging up old news because he didn't have his best day."
News of Cripps' injury has cast the spotlight over Carlton's medical staff and their relationship with the senior coach, but Teague backed the club's doctors.
"Our medical staff I have absolute trust in, I think they do a very good job," he said. "Do they feed that information back to me? Absolutely."
Teague pointed to the club's careful handling of oft-injured forward Charlie Curnow as evidence of the club's player-first mentality when it comes to injury recoveries.
"We'll always put the best interests of our players at heart. That's something this club really prides itself on, and you've seen that with Charlie," he said.
"We're not going to rush Charlie back, we want him there for the long haul and we want his health to be the best it can be for the long-term and we're not going to rush him back for that reason.
"As much as he's tapping me on the shoulder saying, 'Get me into training', we've got a plan and we're going to stick to that plan because we think it's in the best interest for him."
Curnow has not played an AFL match since Round 15, 2019, and Teague indicated that Blues fans would still have to wait a while yet to see the star forward in action.
"He's moving well, but I think he's still a few weeks from joining competitive stuff," he said.
"He'll get integrated in training depending on the drill. Earlier in the week when we're doing a skill drill, he'll probably start shifting into that, before we get him into anything competitive. Until he's doing full training, he'll still be a while away."
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