West Coast Eagles new draftee Kayley Kavanagh has been ruled out of the upcoming AFLW season after rupturing her ACL in the WAFLW at the weekend.
The 18-year-old will now have surgery to repair the injury she sustained in the match between East Perth and Peel Thunder.
Kavanagh was picked up by West Coast in the 2023 AFLW draft with pick #14 off the back of an outstanding year with the Calder Cannons and Victoria Metro.
Eagles AFLW coach Daisy Pearce said the since arriving at the club in Feburary the midfielder has been impressive and it was a shame to see her season end before starting.
“We’re all feeling for Kayley, who since arriving at the club in February has been working really hard on her development, with her determination and competitiveness on show in everything she does,” Pearce said.
This is the second season-ending ACL at the club in less than a month with recruit Matilda Sergeant suffering the same devastating knee injury during a training drill.
Pearce said the club would will rally around both injured players and support them through this difficult time.
“It’s another blow to the team, having only recently seen ‘Tildi’ (Matilda) Sergeant go through the same thing, but we’ll do everything to support them both through their rehab.
“We and will make sure we look for ways to continue to develop them as people and footballers, to ensure this is just a small part of their stories at West Coast.
“Both Kayley and ‘Tildi’ have already started asking how they can continue to support the team, which is a credit to their character and part of the reason why we drafted them both.”