{"id":313788,"date":"2025-11-28T06:39:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T06:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/313788\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T06:39:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T06:39:16","slug":"essendon-bombers-star-nic-martin-ruled-out-of-2026-season-knee-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/313788\/","title":{"rendered":"Essendon Bombers star Nic Martin ruled out of 2026 season, knee injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Essendon<\/a> star Nic Martin has been ruled out of the 2026 season in a horror blow for the player and the club.<\/p>\n

The star defender tore his ACL in July and missed the remainder of the 2025 season, but returned to training in early November.<\/p>\n

However, he suffered a fresh injury on the reconstructed knee after slipping over at training. <\/p>\n

READ MORE: Roos make ‘tough’ selection call on star mid for grand final<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: League steps in to help floundering AFLW sides<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: PM backs Tassie stadium despite eye-watering new price tag<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Nic Martin and Will Setterfield of the Bombers look on after the round 18 AFL match.\u00a0via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old underwent scans to determine the extent of the new injury, with it now confirmed that he will miss the entire 2026 season.<\/p>\n

The club has confirmed Martin underwent surgery on Thursday, for what was described as a “minor training incident”.<\/p>\n

Essendon has said the plan is to take a long-term approach with one of their best players, hence the conservative call. <\/p>\n

“It’s obviously a setback, but I have complete confidence in our medical and high-performance team and our long-term plan for me,” Martin told the club’s website.<\/p>\n

“I’m feeling good post-surgery, and I’m ready to take the time to build my knee back up, and I know I’m in the best hands possible, and I’ll attack this rehab with everything I’ve got to come back stronger.”<\/p>\n

Essendon general manager of football Dan McPherson explained the logic behind the cautious approach.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Nic Martin training in November before the incident.\u00a0AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

“The decision to go back in for surgery sets Nic up for the best long-term result, and he’s determined to come back from this setback an even better and stronger athlete,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Our high-performance team have a clear plan in place, and we’re looking forward to seeing Nic fully fit and ready for a strong 2027 campaign.”<\/p>\n

This news caps off what has truly been one of the worst injury runs any team has had in a calendar year.<\/p>\n

The Bombers’ 2025 season was completely derailed by long-term injuries to effectively every tall player on their list, and Martin.<\/p>\n

Martin won the Yiooken Award as the best player on the field in this year’s Dreamtime at the ‘G game and was enjoying an outstanding season before the knee injury.<\/p>\n

He was not expected to feature in the first chunk of the season, given the torn ACL, but this blow takes his focus completely off 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Essendon star Nic Martin has been ruled out of the 2026 season in a horror blow for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-313788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}