Coughlan, rooster delighted with surgery

[Bubbula]

RICHMOND midfielder Mark Coughlan is cautiously optimistic after returning to the club with a rooster sellotaped to his inner thigh this week.

Coughlan, 26, flew to Germany for radical treatment with specialist Dr Hans Cuckoo-Kraftwerk-Slautern, after struggling with complications from knee surgery.

The treatment, which has not been peer-reviewed and remains controversial in medical circles, involves encouraging a football player and the rooster to stand near one another, then quickly lashing them together with gaffer tape.

Despite a few problems with chafing and unwanted crowing first thing in the morning, club doctors are happy with Coughlan's progress and say he could play in the VFL as early as next weekend.

The rooster, a six-year-old kraienkoppe, says it is still adjusting to its new surroundings but is looking forward to a run in the seconds.

"Ja, I am, how you say, pretty pumped," the rooster told thebladder.com.

"The boys here at the club have been very good to me. You sometimes don't know what to expect in this situation. Will they give you a rough time? Will they say, 'I'm not going to help this guy settle in at the club, because he's not as experienced as I am, because he is five and a half feet shorter, and also because he's a rooster taped to Mark Coughlan's leg'?

"But they've been very welcoming.

"Really, I think playing my first game on the weekend will be almost as exciting as the time I was photographed for the cornflakes packet."

This story is courtesy of http://www.thebladder.com.au