Bad Luck For Sydney FC, Or: Yoga Isn’t Always Good

By: Martha | December 21st, 2007

Scary yoga man Fifth place Sydney FC are facing top of the table Central Coast Mariners in an important A-League match Saturday, but Syndey’s task is getting progressively harder, as they’ve lost two key players in the last couple of days. They’re not losing them in conventional ways, though — it started last week, when the club’s first captain Mark Rudan abruptly departed, leaving the team for a contract with second-division J-League side Avispa Fukuoka, and that was just the beginning.

Yesterday, they got the news that central defender Mark Milligan would not play in the Central Coast match because of … yoga. During a team yoga session on Wednesday, he aggravated a previous back injury, and the pain is such that he had to take cortisone to treat the problem. Though cortisone but only in tablet form — injections are fine) is on that pesky banned substances list, he received special permission from the anti-doping authority to take it, with the stipulation that the drug couldn’t be in his system during a matchweek. So, despite having permission to take the drug, if it were to turn up in his pee, he could theoretically be facing a lifetime ban. Great system, ASADA. Needless to say, since Syndey would rather have him for some matches down to road, Milligan won’t risk the whole illegal pee thing for the Central Coast match.

Then, in yesterday’s training session, first-choice keeper Clint Bolton had a collision with a teammate and suffered a hip injury that will keep him out of the match. Their reserve keeper is reportedly pretty solid, but losing two key elements of your defense ahead of a match with the team at top of the league is never a good thing. Perhaps today’s training session needs to be spend just sitting quietly on the pitch, in order to avoid any possible additional problems.

[Thanks to Lem for the links.]