The injury curse hovering over Metricon Stadium has struck again with promising first-year forward Jarrod Garlett set to miss the remainder of the season with an ankle injury.



Garlett has played in every game of 2015 after debuting against Melbourne in round one and had emerged as one of the bright young talents at the Gold Coast SUNS.



With captain Gary Ablett, David Swallow, Nick Malceski, Jaeger O’Meara and a host of other players sidelined through injury, Garlett’s injury compounds the difficult start to the season for Rodney Eade’s side.



After being selected with pick No. 15 in last year’s national draft, the West Australian has shown glimpses of promise in his first five games. His moment of individual brilliance against Geelong in round three, where he gathered the ball at half-back before taking four bounces and running to deep inside 50 to calmly slot home a goal has firmly been imprinted in football followers minds.



The 19-year-old underwent ankle surgery in Brisbane on Tuesday to repair his ruptured medial ligament that forced him to be substituted out of the SUNS 64-point win over Brisbane in the opening quarter.



“Jarrod Garlett was involved in an incident against Brisbane. He unfortunately stepped on the foot of an opposing player and unfortunately ruptured the medial ligament in his ankle so that rules him out for the best part of a year. Really 15 plus weeks unfortunately,” GC SUNS rehabilitation coach Matthew Kennedy told goldcoastfc.com.au on Tuesday afternoon.



“Jarrod’s having surgery today and following this and once the ankle has settled somewhat he’ll head back to Perth to see his family for a week or so just to make sure his mental state is in good order. Then we’ll get him back and rip into the rehabilitation.”