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Gold Coast AFL star Ben King is to have scans on a suspected knee injury suffered at training.
The 21-year-old forward was taking part in the Suns’ match simulation on Thursday, but fell to the ground during a contest with No.5 draft pick Mac Andrew.
King was quickly supported by coach Stuart Dew and Suns teammates.
Ben King limped off Suns match sim with what appears to be a right knee injury. Happened fractionally before a marking contest with Mac Andrew & Mabior Chol. Mac off as well Chol is ???? @triplemfooty pic.twitter.com/6ECgrgPhVo
— Brett Thomas (@Sports_Brett) February 10, 2022
“Ben left the field with an injury and was assessed by club medical staff at the time,” Suns football manager Wayne Campbell said.
“Ben will get scans this afternoon and we’ll wait on the results of those before taking any further action.”
King is out-of-contract at the end of the 2022 season, with clubs in Victoria already trying to prise him away from south-east Queensland.
He has kicked 89 goals – 47 of them coming last year – in 53 games since debuting in round nine, 2019.
Gold Coast were the lowest scoring side in the AFL last year, with Ben King kicking 47 goals – 7th most in the regular season and 10th all up after all was said and done (three blokes went past him in finals). An ACL to him would be the biggest possible disaster for the Suns.
— Rudi Edsall (@RudiEdsall) February 10, 2022
King is a player the struggling Suns can’t afford to lose with the club yet to play finals since entering the AFL in 2011.
Gold Coast finished 16th last season with seven wins.
King’s twin brother Max plays for St Kilda, while Essendon have also been heavily linked to Ben.
There has been speculation about Ben returning to Victoria ever since he was drafted by Gold Coast back in 2018.
The Suns were unimpressed by a cheeky tweet from St Kilda’s social media team on draft night: “Ben, if you ever want to come home.”.
© AAP