Lonergan to play on
Tom Lonergan has decided to pull on the Geelong guernsey for another season, with the Cats placing the young defender on its rookie list for the 2007 season des
Tom Lonergan has decided to pull on the Geelong guernsey for another season, with the Cats placing the young defender on its rookie list for the 2007 season despite the horrific kidney injury he received this year.The club met with Lonergan's manager Anthony McConville and have agreed to delist the 22-year-old this week and re-draft him in the rookie draft in December."The medical advice is that Tom can resume some training now," Geelong's general manager of football operations Neil Balme said."We have agreed that we will delist Tom this week and redraft him in the rookie draft in December. Tom will remain on similar contract terms as he was in 2006."Lonergan injured himself during the drawn round 19 clash against Melbourne when he backed into a pack and suffered a blow to his kidney, which forced him into hospital to get his kidney removed.After losing 17kg in the weeks following the surgery it was feared that Lonergan would never play football again, but medical staff have given him the all-clear to resume training."The club received a report from Tom's surgeon and the prognosis was positive in terms of his ability to continue to play," Balme said."Once that decision was made we explored all of the ways we could help Tom in his quest to return to the senior team.""We have demonstrated throughout the past few months that our concern was for Tom's long-term recovery and return to full health and that remains the case."Lonergan played three matches in 2006, taking his career tally to a total of seven games, and he knows that there is a large amount of work in front of him if he is to regain full fitness and break back into the senior side."The first decision that I needed to make was whether I would play on," Lonergan said."The medical advice is that I can play, and I want to get back out there. However I know that there is still a lot of work to do to get back to full fitness.""This will allow me to do that without feeling that I have left the team shorthanded."Geelong is confident that no other club will attempt to poach Lonergan in the rookie draft, to be held on December 12, due to the circumstances surrounding what happened to him at the end of the season.