‘Significant issue’: Lions star to play through pain

Brisbane Lions star Lachie Neale has revealed he’s been dealing with a “fairly significant” heel issue for the past two months but has declared he’s “not in any doubt” for Saturday’s preliminary final against Geelong.

Neale, who was kept to just 19 disposals in his team’s stunning come-from-behind semi-final win over GWS, walked through Brisbane airport on Sunday morning wearing a moon boot.

He looked to have injured his ankle in the final few minutes of the game, grabbing at it after being tackled over the boundary line.

Lions coach Chris Fagan said after the win that Neale could often look like he’s in trouble during the week but would always get up to play.

Neale confirmed he had been dealing with a heel issue for months, and didn’t train early in the week, but with “painkilling stuff” he’s been able to play and would take on the Cats.

“Certainly not in any doubt, but probably over the last 8-10 weeks I have had a fairly significant issue with my heel but on game day it feels 100 per cent most of the time,” he told SEN on Monday morning.

“It was probably the first game where it flared up a bit (against GWS). Obviously, take some painkilling stuff to help that and it must have worn off a bit and I must have moved in a different way and it was grabbing a bit more than usual.

“I don’t do much (training) early in the week and Thursdays if you watch training you probably think I am not going to play, that is how badly I have been moving. But game day I feel 100 per cent. (I will) definitely play but carrying a bit of foot and heel soreness at the moment.”

Neale said he thought his team was in a “bit of strife” when they were as much as 44 points behind against the Giants, before storming home for an unforgettable win to set up the MCG showdown with the Cats and the chance to get back to the grand final for the second year in a row.

“We got on a roll pretty quickly and kicked a few goals which gave us a bit of hope,” he said.

“We went in at three-quarter time believing we could run over the top of them.

“It was a great win and for 24 hours you can think ‘how good’s that?’ But we weren’t anywhere near our best, guys including myself weren’t anywhere near our best.

“If we play like we did in patches, we are going to get rolled in a prelim, which we don’t want to do.”