{"id":465316,"date":"2026-02-07T23:47:55","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T23:47:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/465316\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T23:47:55","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T23:47:55","slug":"adelaide-crows-defender-mark-keane-shattered-after-gruesome-ankle-injury-at-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/465316\/","title":{"rendered":"Adelaide Crows defender Mark Keane shattered after gruesome ankle injury at training"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adelaide<\/a> defender Mark Keane will miss the start of the 2026 AFL<\/a> season after suffering a \u201clower leg fracture\u201d during match practice at West Lakes on Friday.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old was crunched by new teammate Finnbar Maley in a marking contest and landed awkwardly, immediately realising his right ankle was pointing the wrong way.<\/p>\n

Watch the video above: Mark Keane shattered after gruesome injury in practice match. WARNING: GRAPHIC<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

Keane initially attempted to put it straight before being helped to his feet and onto a medicab.<\/p>\n

The Irishman, who played all 25 games for the Crows last season, had his head in his hands as he left the track.<\/p>\n

Teammates rallied around Keane but the All Australian squad member will leave a serious void early in the season after scans on Friday confirmed he will require surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe club will be in a position to communicate details around his rehabilitation and return to play timeframe in coming days,\u201d Adelaide said in a brief statement light on detail.<\/p>\n

Speaking on FiveAA radio, Crows coach Matthew Nicks revealed the likely timeline: \u201cLook as far as I\u2019m aware to this point, it\u2019s around three or four months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four months aligns with Sydney Swans star Errol Gulden\u2019s return from a broken ankle last year, having gone down in February before playing his first game of the season in June.<\/p>\n

Keane\u2019s injury has struck with Adelaide only weeks removed from losing young gun Dan Curtin to a dislocated kneecap.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old, who went down in a wrestling drill on January 19, escaped without bone or ligament damage but still underwent surgery to fix long-term concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m feeling good, my knee is feeling good,\u201d Curtin told the club\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have taken a lot of positives out of it and actually feeling alright, considering the circumstances, it\u2019s actually a really good outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have had a past of a few subluxations with my knee and obviously this one being the worst one, I think it was definitely necessary to get it (surgery) done.<\/p>\n

\u201cThinking about the long-term goal and getting it out the way now so I can come back bigger and stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a bitter twist for Maley after being involved in the Keane injury, the off-season recruit had been helping Curtin keep busy while recovering with guitar and PS5 sessions.<\/p>\n

Curtin will miss the start of the season, with the Crows opening their campaign away to Collingwood on March 14.<\/p>\n

Read more AFL news<\/p>\n

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2 min read<\/p>\n

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4 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adelaide defender Mark Keane will miss the start of the 2026 AFL season after suffering a \u201clower leg…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[9126,638,64,63,55,639,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-465316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-adelaide-crows","9":"tag-afl","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-australian-football-league","13":"tag-australianfootballleague","14":"tag-sport","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465316","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=465316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}