AFL star Isaac Quaynor has been left with a gruesome gash on his leg caused by his opponent’s boot stud.
The Collingwood defender came off second best when he laid a tackle on Sydney Swan small forward Sam Wicks at the Gabba in Brisbane on Thursday night.
Replays showed the boot of first-gamer Wicks make contact with Quaynor’s shin, where a 20cm gash instantly appeared.
The AFL is set to probe whether Wicks’ stud boots were made from metal, which is banned by the league to protect players from such injuries.
Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley suggested in the post-match press conference Wicks may have been wearing screw-in metal studs on his boots.
‘Isaac actually tackled a kid whose studs sort of raked across his shin and actually split his shin, six to eight inches, completely open. It was bad luck,’ Buckley said.
‘The kid could’ve had metal studs in as well so, that was just bad luck, tackling the only kid that had that.
‘We don’t get them checked. It’s not under-12s where the umpire comes and checks all of your studs before you play,’ Buckley said.
The Swans have told the AFL Wicks was wearing standard screw-in studs, but the Herald Sun reported he was wearing a hybrid boot.
The Nike Anti-Clog Traction boots Wicks reportedly wore use a combination of metal and plastic fittings in the studs.
A close up image of the small forward’s boots on the field appeared to show metal studs.
The AFL said it will investigate the incident on Friday.
Collingwood went on to defeat the struggling Swans by nine points.
Quaynor will face weeks on the sidelines.
‘That’ll be a couple of weeks (out), it’ll depend on how you can clean the wound and heal that up,’ Buckley said.
