Clem Anthony Michael (born 16 July 1976) is a former Australian Rules football player in the
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...
for the
Fremantle Football Club
The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers, is a professional Australian rules football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The team was founded in 1994 to represent the port city of ...
from 1998 to 2000. The son of
WAFL legend
Stephen Michael
Stephen Albert Michael (born 15 March 1956) is a former Australian rules footballer. More recently, Stephen is the patron of the Stephen Michael Foundation, supporting disengaged, at-risk and disadvantaged youth across Western Australia.
Playin ...
, Clem was drafted by Fremantle in the
1997 National Draft with selection 21 after playing a key role in South Fremantle's 1997 WAFL Premiership side.
After 43 games over 3 seasons, Michael's career was cut short by a serious knee injury, which caused him to retire at the end of the 2001 season. He had an experimental surgery on the knee, in which new cartilage was grown in Scandinavia from a culture of his own cartilage. He remained on Fremantle's list for the 2002 season, and returned to train with South Fremantle but never played football again.
Legal action
After first indicating that legal action could be raised in 2002, Michael filed an action against the Fremantle Football Club doctor Ken Withers in January 2006 claiming that inappropriate medical treatment caused a permanent loss of function of the left knee and continued pain and disability.
[Wilson, R and Gibson, R: "Former Freo star sues over pain-killer use", The West Australian. 6 Jan 2006] The case is to be heard in the Fremantle District Court. The main claim for negligence surrounds the treatment received following a fall in the Round 4, 2000 game against Richmond which tore the left
posterior cruciate ligament
The posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) is a ligament in each knee of humans and various other animals. It works as a counterpart to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). It connects the posterior intercondylar area of the tibia to the medial cond ...
. Michael missed the following two matches before playing the remaining 16 matches in the season with the assistance of local anaesthesia and hydrocortisone injections. Michael claims that these injections were excessive and have resulted in permanent loss of function of the left knee.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Michael, Clem
Fremantle Football Club players
South Fremantle Football Club players
1976 births
Living people
Indigenous Australian players of Australian rules football
Australian rules footballers from Western Australia