{"id":468971,"date":"2026-02-09T18:23:03","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T18:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/468971\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T18:23:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T18:23:03","slug":"port-adelaide-big-man-ivan-soldo-to-miss-entire-afl-after-crushing-acl-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/468971\/","title":{"rendered":"Port Adelaide big man Ivan Soldo to miss entire AFL after crushing ACL injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Port Adelaide<\/a> big man Ivan Soldo\u2019s AFL<\/a> season is over before it even began.<\/p>\n

The cult figure ruptured his ACL in a training incident with the club confirming on Monday that he will not appear in the upcoming 2026 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all with you, Ivan,\u201d Port Adelaide said on social media.<\/p>\n

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

It is a crushing blow for the 2019 premiership player who is in a fight to keep his AFL career alive.<\/p>\n

Soldo moved from Richmond to Port Adelaide ahead of the 2024 season, but has since fallen behind Jordon Sweet in the Power\u2019s ruck pecking order.<\/p>\n

Sweet appeared in 19 games last year, with Soldo playing just one.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such unfortunate news for Ivan,\u201d Port\u2019s head of medical services Tim O\u2019Leary said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is such a professional and hardworking athlete, so we are really disappointed for him, and we will support him to get through this next stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIvan sustained the same injury in his left knee in 2020, so he certainly knows what it takes to attack his rehab and return to the top level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soldo ruptured his ACL and medial ligament in his left knee mid-way through 2020 and then missed the entire 2021 season as he recovered.<\/p>\n

At the end of 2024, Soldo was linked to a move to St Kilda but the Saints cooled on the idea due to reported sensitivities around his knee history.<\/p>\n

At the time, reporter Tom Morris said Soldo didn\u2019t fail a medical test, as such, but the Saints decided to \u201cplay it safe following past list decisions with injured players\u201d.<\/p>\n

Soldo is contracted until the end of this year.<\/p>\n

It was widely thought he was happy to move back to Victoria at the end of last season, as well, but interest from rival clubs was lukewarm.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile over at Adelaide, there are concerns for second-year Crow Sid Draper.<\/p>\n

7NEWS reporter Josh Money revealed early on Monday that the exciting midfielder had rejoined drills, \u201conly to limp off, signalling to his groin and shaking his head\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cDraper\u2019s frustrating pre-season has continued,\u201d Money said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe club had hoped he\u2019d take some part in its preseason games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Draper, the No.4 pick in the 2024 draft, played 10 games in his debut season last year, but was subbed on or off in eight of those games.<\/p>\n

His only appearance in the second half of the season came in the final round against North Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Draper didn\u2019t feature in either of Adelaide\u2019s finals as they crashed out in straight sets.<\/p>\n

Big things are expected of the 19-year-old midfielder, but he has been hampered by groin issues throughout the pre-season.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Injury-cursed big man suffers fresh blow on eve of season<\/p>\n

1 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Devastated defender\u2019s silver lining after surgery on broken leg<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Port Adelaide big man Ivan Soldo\u2019s AFL season is over before it even began. The cult figure ruptured…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,1625,46529,3863,588,85],"class_list":["post-468971","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-lifestyle","tag-port-adelaide-football-club","tag-sponsored-content","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468971","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=468971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}