BRISBANE Lions co-captain Jonathan Brown is still hopeful of playing again this season after having scans on his injured left foot on Monday.
However, leading sports medico Dr Peter Larkins believes Brown's year is seriously in danger regardless of what the scans show.
Brown hobbled off the Gabba against St Kilda in the first quarter of Saturday night's 31-point win, with what he suspects is a rupture to his plantar fascia.
Walking into a Brisbane medical clinic on Monday afternoon, Brown was optimistic about his prospects.
"[The foot is] feeling pretty good but until we get the scans, we're not sure," he said.
"[I'll get the] results tomorrow and hopefully I'll get back and play another game before the season's out."
Brown said if it was a ruptured plantar fascia, he could miss anywhere from two weeks onwards.
Larkins said the pain from the injury, either the full or partial tear, could be controlled by a pain block if he wanted to get back playing.
But he said that was not the way the injury was usually treated.
"If you've ruptured it, you can't run or walk for a couple of weeks at best, and sometimes longer," Larkins told AFL.com.au.
"You can jab them up and numb the whole bottom of your foot if you were desperate enough to play, but it's not a good thing or a good look.
"If they treat it properly, he won't play again this year.
"It is possible to play and they can put a pain block in, but it is very difficult."
Larkins also said it was a "myth" a complete rupture enabled a quicker recovery.
Former St Kilda champion Robert Harvey famously jumped off a table to snap his completely while West Coast's Josh Kennedy numbed his foot with painkillers and then ran until it broke in 2012.
"If you rupture something, you often get really bad bruising and swelling so it's pretty sore," Larkins said.
"It's a bit of a myth to say you jump off the kitchen bench and rupture it Robert Harvey-style.
"Fraser Gehrig had enormous amounts of trouble, Brad Ottens had lots of trouble ... I think it's a myth a complete rupture means you'll be better faster.
"If you do rupture it, it means once the pain goes away, you won't have trouble with it. If you half rupture it, it's worse in the sense that you've now got a half ligament that gets sore because it's working too hard in the future.
"That's the only upside of a complete rupture – once it's ruptured and the pain goes away, you can't rupture it any more."
The Lions have just four matches left this season and Brown, 31, is out of contract at the end of the year.
On Sunday he said the injury would have no bearing on his future and he would make a definitive decision at the end of the season.
Michael Whiting is a reporter for AFL Media. You can follow him on Twitter: @AFL_mikewhiting
