“A frustrating couple of months”: How Weitering has dealt with constant corkies

Carlton defender Jacob Weitering admits it has been a frustrating season for him personally, dealing with numerous corks to his quads.

Weitering has copped two heavy corks against GWS this season, while the one he received against Sydney was bad enough to see him subbed out of the game.

The consistent knocks have seen him strap heavy padding to his legs, none of which have stopped him from remaining the club’s most important player week to week.

“I don’t particularly want to talk about it, it’s been a frustrating couple of months,” Weitering told SEN’s Whateley.

“They’re decent sized quads to go after and I don’t jump the highest either so they’re a good landing pad for some knees when I’m going back with the flight.

“I’ve got the mattress on there now, which protects it slightly. It’s all just part of the game. Boys are pretty beat up this time of year and that’s just a small thing I can do to protect myself in the contest.

“When you’re playing that assertive position and you’re going back with the flight and boys put their knees up to protect themselves, it’s only natural that you probably cop a few in the thighs and ribs.

“For me, it’s probably more frustrating that during the week all I can really do is try and recover and prepare for the next one and maybe lack a bit of training week to week depending on the amount of time we get off, that’s probably the only frustration.

“But as long as I can get up and play a role for the team each week, I’m a happy man.”

Weitering didn’t wish to suggest he is struggling to get up to play every week, but admitted he’s thankful for the wealth of rehabilitation resources at the club.

“We are very fortunate as a club, we’ve got a lot of resources to be able to get ourselves up for each game,” Weitering said.

“There’s a mountain of recovery, there’s the typical ice baths, there’s a lot of hot water and stretching to get it moving early in the week and we’ve got some great people around the club that work their magic to try and get the body up and going.

“And for me, trying to get moving towards the back-end of the week, kicking the ball and moving around, you do a lot of work in pre-season to build your capacity, you’ve just got to keep it at a pretty good level during the week so you can perform on the weekend.”

Carlton faces Port Adelaide on Friday night at Marvel Stadium. They will have some calls to make personnel wise in defence, with Mitch McGovern, Caleb Marchbank and Jordan Boyd likely available to return and Brodie Kemp performing well in the VFL.