North Melbourne gun Luke Davies-Uniacke is at risk of missing the club’s Round 24 game against Gold Coast with a foot injury he suffered while surfing.
Davies-Uniacke originally missed last week’s loss to Richmond with the injury which North Melbourne described as ‘significant bruising and bleeding underneath his big toe’.
The club said the injury occurred after the Round 22 game against Essendon and Edmund confirmed it happened when the keen surfer was catching some waves on a players’ day off.
Edmund says it’s another injury which comes under the debate of players needing to have a life outside of footy versus taking unnecessary risks.
“There’s some news on Luke Davies-Uniacke the young star at North Melbourne,” Edmund said on SEN Afternoons.
“File this one away in the old debate of players needing to have a life versus taking unnecessary risks debate.
“Luke Davies-Uniacke last Wednesday, which was a players’ day off at North Melbourne - we know he's a keen and passionate surfer, so he got the board out and he hit the water.
“But in this surfing session he managed to injure his foot, and it’s that foot bruising that saw him miss last weekend's loss to Richmond and he's in danger of him missing this weekend's game against Gold Coast.
“Now, I'm sure there's some North Melbourne supporters listening at the moment, who let's be honest, probably wouldn't mind if three quarters of the list went out surfing at the moment.
“But having said that though, injured outside of football time, it’s one of those things for clubs that’s a wrestle, isn't it?”
Davies-Uniacke isn’t the first player to miss games due to injuries suffered playing other sports casually, and Edmund went through a few of the more serious cases.
“We've had some big high profile cases in this space,” Edmund said.
“Basketball's claimed a few. Christian Petracca missed a whole year with an ACL from a basketball injury, Charlie Curnow didn't play for a couple of years after a basketball injury.
“We’ve had obviously water skiing incidents and all the likes with Ollie Wines.
“So it's just another one for the file.”
While the Kangaroos obviously would have preferred to have a fit Davies-Uniacke at their disposal, Edmund says they haven’t told him to put away the surfboard.
“Especially for Luke Davies-Uniacke, the club pretty happy with the fact that he can get away from the football bubble and get out and recharge mentally,” Edmund said.
“They haven't told him he can't do it again is my understanding.
“But it's one of those things that, it's fine until it isn't fine, and they much prefer it wouldn't have happened of course.”
North Melbourne’s home and away season wraps up on Saturday afternoon when they host Gold Coast at Blundstone Arena.