{"id":71736,"date":"2021-05-16T09:25:50","date_gmt":"2021-05-16T09:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=71736"},"modified":"2021-05-16T10:57:04","modified_gmt":"2021-05-16T10:57:04","slug":"horror-injuries-extend-carltons-miserable-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=71736","title":{"rendered":"Horror injuries extend Carlton&#039;s miserable 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/carlton-blues\" title=\"Carlton\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carlton<\/a>&#x27;s poor start to 2021 has gone from bad to worse with midfielder David Cunningham suffering a serious injury in the loss to Melbourne.<\/p>\n<p>Cunningham, who had played just three matches so far this season, went down early in the first quarter of <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/afl\/live-scores\/melbourne-v-carlton-afl-home-and-away\/113760904\" title=\"Melbourne&#x27;s 13. 16. (94) to 10. 8. (68) win\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Melbourne&#x27;s 13. 16. (94) to 10. 8. (68) win<\/a> at the MCG.<\/p>\n<p>The incident occurred on the wing in the first quarter as Cunningham&#x27;s left leg buckled after he landed in a marking contest.<\/p>\n<p>The 24-year-old immediately crashed to the turf, yelling in agony, before he was helped off the ground by Carlton&#x27;s trainers. He was substituted out of the game for small forward Michael Gibbons.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"4b382a8c-87b1-431c-8d1f-e7e12d2dc93d\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/4b382a8c-87b1-431c-8d1f-e7e12d2dc93d\" alt=\"David Cunningham\" data-width=\"1396\" data-height=\"785\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Following Carlton&#x27;s loss, coach <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/david-teague\" title=\"David Teague\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">David Teague<\/a> admitted that the club was left fearing the worst for Cunningham, with the injury likely to rule him out for the rest of the year.<\/p>\n<p>Cunningham&#x27;s injury wasn&#x27;t the only scare for the Blues, with Coleman Medal leader Harry McKay suffering a shoulder injury, although he was able to run out the game.<\/p>\n<p>McKay had his right shoulder looked at in the opening quarter, but finished the game with three goals, adding to his lead at the top of the AFL&#x27;s goal-kicking list.<\/p>\n<p>Melbourne&#x27;s win made it a 9-0 start for the AFL&#x27;s ladder leaders, with the unbeaten start through nine weeks the club&#x27;s best start since the 1956 season, a year in which it won the premiership.<\/p>\n<p>Clayton Oliver was sensational in the win, finishing with 28 disposals, 10 tackles and a goal, while Christian Salem continued his prolific play off halfback with 29 touches.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"daa7e467-58e6-436b-ad81-851af7c381d6\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/daa7e467-58e6-436b-ad81-851af7c381d6\" alt=\"Harry McKay\" data-width=\"1396\" data-height=\"785\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Told to find another club in the off-season, Tom McDonald continued his incredible renaissance season, finishing with three goals, while Bayley Fritsch also added three of his own.<\/p>\n<p>The Blues&#x27; efforts were led by Sam Walsh, who collected another 30 disposals, while co-captains Sam Docherty (27 disposals) and Patrick Cripps (27 disposals) were also impressive.<\/p>\n<p>Melbourne will be hot favourites to extend their unbeaten streak to 10 wins next week, but will have to do it on the road against the Adelaide Crows.<\/p>\n<p>Carlton will aim to resuscitate it&#x27;s finals hopes when it faces a struggling Hawthorn team at the MCG.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/login.nine.com.au\/login?client_id=wwos&amp;redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwwos.nine.com.au&amp;newsletter=true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!\"><em><strong>For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Carlton&#x27;s poor start to 2021 has gone from bad to worse with midfielder David Cunningham suffering a serious injury in the loss to Melbourne. Cunningham, <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=71736\" title=\"Horror injuries extend Carlton&#039;s miserable 2021\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71736"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71736"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71738,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71736\/revisions\/71738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}