A devastated Henneman was pictured on television calling his father on his mobile phone. He knew the soft-tissue injury was the beginning of the end of his season and his first finals campaign. What he didn't know was that he would only play a handful of games in the next 18 months. As tough as it was missing the 2001 finals campaign Henneman put the disappointment behind him and put all his energy into the pre-season.
And what a pre-season he had – Henneman was on fire in the practice matches and then carried his good form into the 2001 season. He was playing a combination of ruck and in the backline. ""In 2002 I played a very good pre season and tried to make amends for missing the 2001 finals series. Then I played a few games and fell awkwardly on my hip and had a hip arthroscrope during the second half of last year."" Henneman missed the remainder of 2002 and then to make matters worse this year he did the entire pre season before injuring his groin in the first practice match.
Henneman has had an ongoing battle with the groin injury this season and is yet to play a match. ""It has been one of those injuries that could not have been helped. I have had a bit of bad luck over the past 12 to 18 months. You just have to keep looking on the positive side and do all of your rehab work and listen to your coaches and hopefully everything just falls back into place when you start up again.
""There has been a lot of tough times where you just think is it ever going to stop. I also don't like the term injury prone player - so that is another thing I don't like about it. That gets me down but there is not much you can do about it and a positive attitude is probably what will get you through,"" Henneman said.
Under the guidance of fitness coach John Quinn and the Essendon medical staff Henneman tried every possible treatment to fix his groin complaint including acupuncture and physiotherapy everyday. Just when Henneman thought he was on the mend and could start running freely again he would find himself pulling up sore the following day and be back to square one. “That is when we went to the surgeon. It was always going to take six to eight weeks and I was going to play three weeks ago before the break and then I hurt myself again at training with a bit of scar tissue. That is pretty common, so it was a good thing in one way that it happened earlier that later in the year,"" Henneman said.
Part 2 of FORGOTTEN BUT NOT GONE will be in the Engine Room tomorrow and looks at Henneman’s return this Saturday for the Bendigo Bombers.
