Saints blow confirmed after $2 million star’s costly injury
Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera’s season is officially over after St Kilda confirmed the extent of their marquee man’s injury on Monday evening.
The star defender pulled up and clutched at his hamstring against Carlton on Sunday and hobbled straight towards the bench.
Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera grabs his hamstring. Getty Images
“That’s the wildcard story right there as he walks off the ground. No footy fan likes to see this,” Demons legend Garry Lyon said.
“That’s your old-fashioned hamstring. That’s no good at all. You can feel the crowd here, the air has gone out of it from a St Kilda point of view.
Wanganeen-Milera went up the sheds and returned to the bench with ice on his hamstring before he was ruled out for the rest of the match.
Scans have since confirmed a moderate grade hamstring strain, which will rule Wanganeen-Milera out for the Saints’ last two regular season games.
His teammate Mason Wood will also be sidelined with a calf injury.
“It was very disappointing to lose both Nasiah and Mason during the first half of last night’s game,” general manager Lenny Hayes said.
“Clearer recovery timelines will be determined in the coming days, however both have clearly been ruled out for the remainder of the home and away season.”
Losing their best player with a wildcard spot on the line was worsened by the result, which saw the Blues run out as 16.10 (106) - 8.14 (62) winners.
At the time he left the field, the scores were locked at 6-6 in the first quarter.
Post-match, Ross Lyon said he could tell before Wanganeen-Milera’s injury that his side wasn’t properly switched on.
“It’s not ideal losing your best player, but in saying that you’ve got to overcome it and not let it derail you,” he said.
“Probably even before he went off there were some signs we weren’t liking, but it didn’t help.”
Wanganeen-Milera had come into the match under an injury cloud, missing Thursday training due to a hip pointer problem.
The match had major ramifications for the wildcard spots with Carlton in 10th and four points ahead of 11th-placed St Kilda and the Blues have now made that an eight-point margin from the Saints, GWS and North Melbourne.
St Kilda has two matches left against Richmond and Gold Coast.
