Clem

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Not knowing any of the legal or medical facts, other than the standard duty of care/worksafe/safe place of work type rules...I reckon they'll settle out of court. Especially with Michael Jnr MkII coming along as a potential F-Son pick in a couple of years.

Offer Clem a job doing junior development (visiting schools, rural areas etc) and help him with ongoing rehab. Polly Farmer played half his career with no cartlidge and Barry Cable coached with a badly broken leg so you can coach on one leg!

And because the West's website has no useful search or archiving function... here is the article...

Former Freo star sues over pain-killer use

RAY WILSON and ROY GIBSON


Former Fremantle ruckman Clem Michael claims he received inappropriate medical treatment while at the Dockers and is pursuing ground-breaking legal action in a bid to win damages estimated at between $500,000 and $1 million.

In a test case certain to be monitored by all AFL clubs and other sporting bodies, Michael claims he was administered excessive pain-killing and anti-inflammatory injections to his damaged left knee, enabling him to continue to train and play for the Dockers in 2000.

Michael, 29, is taking the action in the District Court against Fremantle's doctor Ken Withers.

In the writ, Michael says that on April 2, 2000, in a game against Richmond, he tore the posterior cruciate of his left knee during a fall.

Michael, then regarded as the No. 1 ruckman for the Dockers, missed two weeks with the injury before playing the last 16 matches of the season.

He alleges that Withers owed a duty of care to act with reasonable care, skill and diligence in treating the injury.

But the writ claims that in breach of that duty of care Withers administered excessive local anaesthesia and hydrocortisone injections, causing Michael to suffer a permanent loss of function of the left knee, and continued pain and disability.

Michael, the son of legendary South Fremantle footballer and dual Sandover medallist Stephen Michael, played 43 games with Fremantle from 1998 to 2000.

He had a revolutionary knee reconstruction after the 2000 season but he never played again, retiring in November 2001.

A strong, aggressive ruckman, Michael was likely to have been earning about $120,000 a year when the injury cut short his career at 25.

The writ alleges that Withers was negligent by:

  • Failing to have due regard to the health, safety and physical well-being of the player.
  • Failing to undertake alternative forms of treatment including physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, muscular control exercises and treatment under a pain management specialist.
  • Failing to advise Michael of the risks associated with continued and excessive use of local anaesthesia and hydrocortisone injections.
  • Failing to warn him that this could result in permanent loss of function of the left knee.
  • Failing to warn him not to train and play AFL due to the injury.


Michael says that he now suffers restricted mobility in his left knee, osteoarthritis, posterior cruciate laxity, keloid scarring and permanent loss of function.

Michael claims that his social, employment and household duties have been restricted as a result and that he has been rendered totally incapacitated. Parties will be back in the District Court on January 20 for a pre-trial conference.

Footballers who play with pain-killers attracted national headlines after the 2003 grand final when Brisbane revealed 18 phials of drugs were used to ease the pain of players during the club's third premiership.

At the time, Brisbane coach Leigh Matthews said pain-killers were a normal part of AFL football.

"I think footballers in past eras played with sore spots. Nowadays, if it's just a sore spot they try and deaden it," Matthews said.

The Dockers selected Michael from South Fremantle with pick No. 21 in the 1997 AFL national draft.​
 
No real surprise. It is a damm shame that Clem broke down. The delisting of Spider Burton at the end of 1999 undoubtably helped cause them to overwork him.

Drummie never won a game without Clem in the team.

A posterior cruciate IIRC usually means a six week layoff at least but they had him back in two.

I reckon he has a case but hope they settle as Benedict says.
 

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Another settlement coming up.

No wonder the club decided to upgrade my seat and collect an extra $60.
 
Very interesting case if it doesn't get settled out of court. It's different from Rehn/Luke O'Sullivan cases where ground conditions were at fault. The only similar one in recent memory is Carlton's Adrian Whitehead who played through major foot problems, but I can't remember the outcome of his case.
There must be a few other blokes over the years who have had careers cut short because of such medical advice - a senior WA sports physio once told me Warren Dean (former Subi/Melb) had his career ended by being repeatedly asked to play injured (knees), with the aid of a few injections, in the late 80's.
Very sad for Clem Michael to have his career end so abruptly just when he was becoming a v. good AFL player.
 
Admittedly I never played AFL, but I damaged my right knee early in a season once, and played for another six weeks, draining the knee after each game, before our physio and myself decided we really had to check for structural damage. Turns out I had blown a PCL (along with a bit of cartiledge damage), which is now an increasingly common injury in the AFL, and many many players have had long careers without PCL's (Simon Madden, Guy Mckenna to name but two).

Recovery time from an operation to clean the knee up (PCL reconstructions are notoriously unsuccessful and rarely attempted) was touted at 4 weeks for an AFL player and 3 weeks for an NRL player, and I had set myself for preoperative rehab so I would loose minimum time, and played after 11 days, admittedly at probably 90%, but was fine playing the following week. There will always be a residual weakness in the knee, the PCL's function is to provide around 10% stability to the knee and basically stop it from swinging off! You must develop muscles around the top of the knee to compensate for the loss of the PCL.

Anyway, my (somewhat laboured) point is that I honestly believe that knee injuries, even at the top level, are a very strong indicator of the individual's focus and desire to overcome adversity. I know that some injuries are obviously career-ending, but I am not 100% convinced that this was the case for Clem.

BTW, I highly rated Clem as a player, and thought some of his clearance work in the centre was the best I've seen. Instinctively efficient.
 
blockerhall said:
Admittedly I never played AFL.
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Unlike the rest of us who had stellar careers at the highest level. :D
blockerhall said:
Anyway, my (somewhat laboured) point is that I honestly believe that knee injuries, even at the top level, are a very strong indicator of the individual's focus and desire to overcome adversity. I know that some injuries are obviously career-ending, but I am not 100% convinced that this was the case for Clem.
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I seem to recall a fair bit of gossip going around saying Clem was shirking the issue regarding his rehab and he basically just fell out of the club. Didn't Schwabby even keep him on the list (unpaid) for a year in 2002 just in case he wanted to make a comeback?
 

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masai said:
That is the standard throw away line
mick ryan said:
Actually, it's a fact.
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You're half Irish and half Japanese with both sides split so we understand you can't tell the difference between a fact and conjecture. Its a fact he played 43 games.

Its conjecture he was drafted solely because of his name. Its also a very dumb piece of conjecture because, unlike many other completely useless duds that were recruited around the same time, Clem Michael was more than handy for a very young ruckman, and was destined for a decent career.
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Drafted in 1997. Rioli and Michael both played in South's 97 premiership. Rioli kicked 4 goals. Michael played at CHF and ruck and was in the best player list. Both were young talents. Both had famous (in Freo football terms) names. Both were tipped to be drafted, neither went Father-son (still not sure why... Kizons went father-son to the other mob a year or so earlier). Both probably haven't made the most of their talent, but both have shown that they could play very well at AFL level.
Saying that they were only drafted because of their names shows a complete lack of understanding of late 1990's WAFL football.
 
Dr Ralph Dagg said:
masai said:
That is the standard throw away line
You're half Irish and half Japanese with both sides split so we understand you can't tell the difference between a fact and conjecture. Its a fact he played 43 games.

Its conjecture he was drafted solely because of his name. Its also a very dumb piece of conjecture because, unlike many other completely useless duds that were recruited around the same time, Clem Michael was more than handy for a very young ruckman, and was destined for a decent career.
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It's also a fact that I was at the meeting when the discussion took place and the decision was made to take him.
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I throughly enjoyed Clem's efforts in the final quarter of the 1997 WAFL GF. Based on that effort I find it hard to believe he was drafted only because of his surname.

But then I wasn't at the meeting when the discussion took place.
 
Irrespective of his name and the link to Fremantle- would have been drafted by other clubs after us. No surprise at all that we took him and that he looked the goods prior to his demise.
 
mick ryan said:
Dr Ralph Dagg said:
masai said:
That is the standard throw away line


It's also a fact that I was at the meeting when the discussion took place and the decision was made to take him.
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Did you also play 12 senior games for South Fremantle and score yourself a few Sandover votes in one of those 12 games??
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I think to suggest that if his name wasnt Michael he wouldnt have been drafted by the Dockers is a bit over the top. What is interesting is that none of the other clubs must have rated him as high as the Dockers particularly the Eagles who had two picks before the Dockers chose him.
He was a good player at South but I dont believe he was a tough player either physically or mentally in fact he always seemed to me to be a sulky type.
 

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