Collingwood’s Brayden Maynard played Saturday’s heartbreaking Preliminary Final loss to Sydney with a “quite significant” groin injury.
Maynard had tweaked his groin in the Semi Final win over Fremantle the week prior which was played down by coach Craig McRae on SEN.
“He (Maynard) is fine, as far as I’m aware he never had a groin complaint at all,” McRae said on SEN’s The Run Home during the week.
“He’s just one of those guys that checks himself to the panel beater then on Tuesday he gets polished up a bit and he’s ready to go on the weekend.”
Sportsday’s Sam McClure reported that the 2022 All-Australian defender’s injury was severe enough that he might not have even played if it was a game of lesser significance.
Discussing the one-point loss to the Swans, former Essendon star Matthew Lloyd spoke about Maynard’s performance which he believes was impacted by his direct opponents.
“I’ve never seen Maynard so off the bit,” said Lloyd.
“Tom Papley was in his face, they just got into Maynard. Everyone lauds Maynard for being old school, but he lost his way, they got under his skin.”
McClure provided a little bit of context as to why Maynard was not quite himself on the day.
“On Maynard, it was a bit taboo talking about it pre-game, but he was very injured,” he said.
“I think the groin injury he sustained the week earlier was quite significant and he wouldn’t have played if it was any other week.”
The Pies almost pulled off the great escape at the SCG, trailing by 23 points at the final break before going under by just one point.
Maynard was seen as one of the side’s very best players across the campaign but appeared to be hobbled in the prelim.