FALCONS LOSE MANNING TO KNEE INJURY

THE DEVASTATING run of serious knee injuries in the game has struck West Perth with versatile 21-year-old Kody Manning rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament at training this week cruelling ending his 2013 season.

Manning was involved in a relatively innocuous contest at training on Tuesday night with West Perth getting ready to take on East Fremantle at East Fremantle Oval this Saturday following the club's first two losses of 2013, but then he felt something go in his knee and scans have revealed the worst.

Manning has now played 29 games for the Falcons and was currently enjoying his best and most consistent season in a new role up forward where his primary job was to put on enormous pressure, but he also has bobbed up to kick five goals.

Coach Bill Monaghan has been delighted with how Manning was performing and was tremendously disappointed for him when the news came through that his season was over, but knows that anytime one door closes another one opens.

"He is still a young man, though, and I'm sure he will come back bigger and stronger from it. I'm really disappointed for him," Monaghan said.

"He has been playing his role extremely well and it's a really important role as that pressuring forward so we need to find someone else to jump up and do that for us this week.

"He will be sorely missed but it provides opportunity for other people and we will support Kody through as much as we can to make sure he gets all the right information and does all the right rehab to hopefully be ready to go for close to the start of next season."

Monaghan and most others out on the track at Arena Joondalup didn’t think that anything too serious was wrong when Manning did the damage to his knee at training.

There was no horrible twist or bend or motion to suggest that his ACL gave way, but once he got into the rooms the medical staff feared the worst and the coach and Manning's teammates knew once they saw him on crutches after training that the news was unlikely to be too positive.

"I didn’t see exactly what happened because I didn’t actually know he went off the track when he did that's how innocuous it was," Monaghan said.

"There was a bit of a ground ball he was going for with Anton Saylor I think it was and he turned sharply when he won possession of it, kicked the ball forward and then basically limped off. He said it didn’t feel right by the time he got to the change rooms and it blew up.

"By the time I came in he was on crutches and bandaged up with the physio and training staff pretty certain that it was going to be an ACL. It's really disappointing and it happened in nothing more than just a semi-competitive drill.

"He didn’t buckle to the ground or fall over or writhe in pain or all of that stuff. It was a really strange and a bit of a shock for us to see him limping around on crutches when we got off the track."

BY CHRIS PIKE