{"id":452773,"date":"2026-02-02T02:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T02:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/452773\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T02:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T02:34:14","slug":"brisbane-recruits-season-delayed-with-fresh-setback-afl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/452773\/","title":{"rendered":"Brisbane recruit&#8217;s season delayed with fresh setback &#8211; AFL News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/introducing-myteam-your-club-your-news-your-way-166070\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ZH-InArticleMyTeamLink.png.webp.webp\" height=\"40\" style=\"float:right;\" class=\"my-team-banner promo-article-banner\" id=\"my-team-banner\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Brisbane recruit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/afl\/players\/sam-draper\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sam Draper<\/a> won&#8217;t be available for the start of the Lions&#8217; premiership defence after suffering a recent foot injury.<\/p>\n<p>A &#8220;stress reaction&#8221; has interrupted Draper&#8217;s maiden pre-season in Queensland, with the club discovering the ailment midway through the club&#8217;s recent community camp.<\/p>\n<p>Currently sporting a moon boot, Draper is facing up to eight weeks on the sidelines.<\/p>\n<p>The injury will mean Draper misses the Lions&#8217; season opener against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/afl\/teams\/western-bulldogs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Western Bulldogs<\/a> on Saturday, March 7, while the ex-Essendon ruckman is also no certainty for Brisbane&#8217;s succeeding clash with Sydney a week later.<\/p>\n<p>Draper was eyeing a return from an achilles injury that brought his 2025 season to an abrupt end in April.<\/p>\n<p>Having initially been in the mix to play Opening Round, Draper is back on the sidelines and has been dealt a delay to his first season with Brisbane.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Sammy Draper didn&#8217;t play (our most recent match simulation). He got a sore foot the day prior,&#8221; coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/afl\/coaches\/chris-fagan\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chris Fagan<\/a> confirmed to\u00a0SEN Tassie.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve had some scans on that, and unfortunately he&#8217;s got a stress reaction in his foot. That&#8217;s going to mean he won&#8217;t be available for selection until the second week of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AFL<\/a> season.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-172599\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/587801897_18549491770004404_1146976457258529081_n.jpg.webp.webp\" alt=\"Brisbane recruit's season start delayed with setback\" width=\"640\" height=\"408\"\/>Sam Draper at pre-season training with Brisbane in 2026 (Image via Brisbane FC\/Instagram)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s slowed him a little bit.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Draper moved to Brisbane via free agency over the off-season, departing the Bombers after 79 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AFL<\/a> games.<\/p>\n<p>The ruckman joined West Coast&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/afl\/players\/oscar-allen\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oscar Allen<\/a> in making the switch to the Queensland capital, who has overcome his own injury woes since having his time with the Eagles brought to a close.<\/p>\n<p>Brisbane is scheduled to face Carlton for a match simulation clash on February 18 to open the club&#8217;s pre-season schedule, with a Community Series meeting with Gold Coast to follow eight days later.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brisbane recruit Sam Draper won&#8217;t be available for the start of the Lions&#8217; premiership defence after suffering a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-452773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452773","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=452773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}