NATHAN Bock will see his surgeon later this week to discuss the process of having the steel rod removed from his broken right leg.
Bock was subbed out of Gold Coast's 13-point win over Melbourne on Saturday night after having difficulties with the leg.
The 30-year-old vice-captain broke it horribly against Fremantle in round six last season, and had just returned to senior footy.
After a number of weeks in the reserves, Bock resumed the previous week against West Coast, but has now been ruled out for the remainder of the season.
It is common practice to remove such rods in the one year-plus mark in a patient's recovery.
Bock will likely have the rod removed next week, although the specifics will be finalised he speaks to his surgeon.
The rod is stretching from Bock's knee to ankle, running through the centre of his tibia and is held in place by two "cross bolts" at the top and bottom that stop it from moving vertically.
Leading medico Dr Peter Larkins says it's not unusual for recipients of such breaks to experience ongoing soreness after the bone has healed.
However, he said removing the rod – and the bolts, which often cause the painful irritation – would not necessarily fix the problem.
"It's common place to take the rods out but in particular if someone's having soreness, it's one way of removing one of the variables that might be contributing," Larkins told AFL.com.au.
"There's two reasons you do it - one is because there might be some soreness and you're not sure if there's some reaction to the metal so you take it out as a way of checking if that's the reason you're sore.
"The other reason is some people just don't want to have a rod in their leg when they don't need it anymore.
"They're not buried that far inside; they're down the centre of the bone so they're quite simple to remove. It's not a big deal."
Larkins said Bock had suffered soreness in May and June in the lead up to his NEAFL return.
He said the other cause of Bock's lingering pain could be related to
"scar tissue inside and around the muscle", which Nathan Brown and Matt Maguire both faced in their recoveries from similar injuries.
But, he said it could be as simple as removing the metal reinforcements.
"It often works. It's not a bad thing to take it out," he said.
"If it is related to a bit of reaction from the cross bolts, then that can solve the problem.
"In a few months' time, he'll know [if it worked] because he'll be in pre-season training and it will be the running that really finds out whether he's still sore in his calf and shin."
