Rocca - NFL - Anthony not Sav

[Proud Pies]

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,23912731-19742,00.html


NFL career may loom sooner for stricken Anthony Rocca

Mark Robinson
June 24, 2008 12:00am

MAGPIE Anthony Rocca's AFL season is over after a severe ankle injury, now bringing into focus a possible NFL punting career.

Rocca, who is 31 in August, will be sidelined for up to 12 weeks after Sunday's injury, which reopened the fracture that had been operated on at the end of last season.

Rocca has made it known he is interested in following his brother Saverio into the million-dollar punting business in the US's National Football League.

Needing to end his AFL career to prepare for NFL camps, which start in July, Rocca will have to decide at the end of this season whether to play on and risk further injury to the ankle, or retire and try out in the US.

Rocca, who is out of contract at the end of the season, will be operated on today.

Rocca's manager Robert Conte said last night Rocca's NFL future would be decided by Rocca alone.

"I can't answer on behalf of Anthony, but I suppose he will have to think (about it)," Conte said.

"A lot of things are going to go through his head in the next few weeks, and we're going to sit down with Collingwood and work out what the situation is.

"I suppose he will then have to make a decision or Collingwood will have to make a decision.

"You do have fleeting discussions (about the NFL), like when Sav went over there. Of course we discuss it, that it would be lovely after leaving AFL football to have a career there.

"But he has also mentioned to me he would miss all his family if he did happen to go over there long term."

Collingwood said yesterday the injury - the third in three years to Rocca's right ankle, including an achilles tendon rupture - was not career-threatening.

Rocca hobbled from the field during the third quarter of the loss to the Western Bulldogs.

He has since told Magpie officials he felt pain in the ankle in the minutes leading up to a mark-and-kick play that eventually forced him from the field.

Rocca had missed several games with ankle soreness, and it's understood he would have missed the Dogs game if Travis Cloke (suspended) was available.

Collingwood football manager Geoff Walsh yesterday was emphatic Rocca wanted to play and the club's medical staff had cleared him for the match.

"I don't think that we rolled the dice," Walsh said.

"As it turned out, we did, but we certainly didn't make the selection knowing we were rolling the dice."

Rocca said yesterday: "I was right to play. Like all the other players out there, they go out with a bit of pain, but I was right to play."

Walsh rejected a notion Rocca was not fit for selection and should have been rested.

"He played because he was fit. It's a fairly mischievous question . . . we wouldn't have played him if he wasn't fit," Walsh said.

"In the medical opinions, the staff and his own, he was ready and right to play.

"He was keen and wanted to play, and we were keen and wanted him to play. All the boxes were ticked."

Walsh said Rocca was expected to make a full recovery and return sometime between eight and 12 weeks.

"On the surgeon's advice this morning, given the time frame he'll be out, he'll come good and be good as new," an optimistic Walsh said.

"He'll heal perfectly. It's not career-threatening, if that's the right phrase."

The season is also in tatters for Rocca's teammate Ben Reid, who has a broken bone in his foot.

The young forward does not need an operation.

[Dave The Man]

Well It Could Happen but I reckon he might try 1 more time