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Troubled Bennell has another setback

Harley Bennell in his days at the Dockers. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
15th February, 2018
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A minor calf tear has again put troubled Fremantle midfielder Harley Bennell’s AFL career on ice – again.

The Dockers say the latest injury on the 25-year-old’s left leg is in an area unrelated to a previous injury.

The grade one tear occurred while he was with WAFL team Peel, where the midfielder was banished in mid-January for a scuffle at a Perth nightclub and drinking excessively the day before a training session.

He was also fined $15,000 – a third of which was suspended.

At the time, Fremantle captain Nat Fyfe said Bennell would have to “fight for his career” during his eight weeks at the state league club.

The 2010 draft’s No.2 pick has played two games in two years for the club after spending five years at the Gold Coast Suns.

It had been hoped the move west would see an end to the off-field troubles that plagued his time at the Suns.

But in April, he was ejected from a Gold Coast-bound flight before it departed because he was intoxicated.

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The club also ordered him to undergo counselling and fined him $10,000 – half of which was suspended – after bizarre behaviour while watching a WAFL game in 2017.

The 24-year-old interrupted the three-quarter-time huddle of a match involving the Dockers’ WAFL-affiliate Peel Thunder to speak to his cousin Traye Bennell.

In May 2015, the Suns dropped Bennell from their team after he drank alcohol after a game, breaking a team rule.

And in July 2015, pictures of Bennell allegedly preparing to snort an illicit substance were published.

The Suns traded Bennell after he was involved in a drunken altercation in September 2015 on the Gold Coast.

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