Pre-season Blues: Carlton's decade-long injury curse

It’s a feeling Carlton fans are all too familiar with.

Carlton’s Jesse Motlop has been ruled out for the entirety of the 2026 season due to a ruptured ACL just days into the Blues’ return to pre-season.

Enjoying a season of improved performances, the 22-year-old solidified his spot within the senior side across 2025, booting 17 goals across his 23 games.

Now, he will spend the entire 2026 campaign watching on as he battles to return from a devastating blow.

As disappointing as it is, Motlop is far from the first at the club to endure such an injury before a ball is kicked...

The Curse

In fact, Motlop’s ACL injury marks a fourth consecutive season in which a Blue has ruptured an ACL during pre-season training.

Last season, highly talented draftee Jagga Smith went down with an ACL after showing incredibly promising signs during the early stages of Carlton’s practice runs.

He joined veteran defender and back-to-back Runner Up Best and Fairest Nic Newman, who ruptured his patella just one month prior.

Ahead of 2024, it was (then) beloved father-son Jack Silvagni who fell victim to the curse, rupturing his ACL in the lead-up to the season and missing the entirety of what was expected to be a promising season for the 2023 Preliminary Finalists.

And in that Preliminary Final year, the Blues were also a man short, with Zac Williams’ pre-season ACL ruling him out of the entire 2023 campaign.

You would have to travel back to 2022 to find a season in which a Blue did not suffer an ACL injury during the pre-season. Liam Stocker (Syndesmosis) and Sam Walsh (back) endured rocky starts, while David Cuningham and Ed Curnow missed the entire ’22 season with injuries suffered prior to and following the pre-season. Reprieve at last.

The History

In 2021, Caleb Marchbank suffered a calf injury that ruled him out of the opening rounds, before – you guessed it – rupturing his ACL in the first quarter of his return to VFL football. This followed what had already been an incredibly unfortunate run with injuries, having remained out for the 2020 season due to a non-displaced fracture of his vertebrae in 2019.

Prior to 2021, it was the Charlie Curnow saga. A dislocated kneecap (while playing basketball) in October of 2019 hampered his start to pre-season, before fracturing his patella (walking upstairs) just months later, ruling him out for the entirety of 2020.

And of course, who could forget the courageous Sam Docherty, who spent all of 2018 and 2019 on the sidelines with back-to-back ACL ruptures in what remains one of the most cruel stories in recent history.

Recruit Mitch McGovern also fractured his back in the lead-in to 2019, but was able to return in time for Round 1. Jarrod Pickett shared the medical room with Docherty for the season as he recovered from a ruptured patella - also during pre-season.

To round off the decade, 2026 marks 10 years since Harry McKay was ruled out for his entire rookie campaign with stress fractures in his lower back.

The Numbers

In total, the Blues have had 13 players endure 16 serious pre-season injuries over the last 10 years. Of those 16 injuries, six have been season-ending ACL injuries, while a total of 10 have been knee-related.

Of the 13 players, 10 were ruled out for the season.

Taking the number of games played by those ruled out in each season, the Blues have lost out on 803 games of experience over 10 years of pre-season injuries.

And now, Jesse Motlop is the latest victim of a decade-long curse that the Carlton faithful are all too familiar with.

At least the club nailed their pre-season in 2017, remaining injury-free ahead of their 16th-placed finish.