THE Carlton Football Club can confirm forward Charlie Curnow has sustained a fracture to his patella that has caused a setback in his recovery from a right-knee injury.

The 22-year-old accidentally slipped on tiles while walking upstairs on Wednesday afternoon and sustained a fracture to his right patella.

The fractured patella is a new injury to the same knee that Curnow was rehabilitating from post-season surgery. When Curnow slipped, he produced a high-level contraction to his quadriceps muscle. This caused a large force to go through his whole knee and his de-conditioned patella did not tolerate the load.

Curnow was immediately taken to hospital when the injury occurred and will undergo surgery today.

Carlton Head of Football Brad Lloyd said the accident was extremely unfortunate and the Club was currently providing the young forward with support during what is understandably a frustrating time.

“The recovery time for a fractured knee cap is typically 3-4 months. This will delay his return to running until the New Year, which means it is unlikely he will be available for our pre-season games in late-February and early-March,” Lloyd said.

“Charlie is understandably very disappointed right now but our entire football club, and I’m sure our members included, will give Charlie all the support he needs to get through this frustrating period.

“He is a resilient character, and we have no doubt, knowing the competitor he is, he will be back to playing good football in the Navy Blue in 2020.”