Pinder Injury Severity Revealed

The full severity of the facial injuries Cairns star Keanu Pinder suffered in Wednesday night’s loss to South East Melbourne are beginning to be revealed.

The centre was forced from the floor late in the third quarter after copping an accidental elbow to the face during a heated rebounding contest.

He was bleeding from his nose, right eye and left eyebrow following the hit, and Cairns coach Adam Forde says first reports of the injuiry make for difficult reading.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Keanu Pinder has been taken straight into the changerooms following a stray elbow to the face late in the third quarter. <a href="https://t.co/w5mcAmSgDo">pic.twitter.com/w5mcAmSgDo</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1618192464304820228?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 25, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“He has an orbital fracture,” Forde said. “While it can potentially self-heal, one thing that can irritate it is if he looks up and the muscle gets caught in it.

“That’s the discomfort he’s feeling.

“There’s bruising, surface scratching. There’s a laundry list of other things.

“The main thing we’re worried about now is Keanu. He’ll be booked in with specialists and I’ll try to stumble my way through what they tell me.

“It’s a tough one for him.”

Pinder suffered the injury in just his second game back from a six-game absence due to an ankle injury suffered against Melbourne United.

While the potential loss of the reigning Most Improved player undoubtedly hurts the Taipans’ championship aspirations, they’ve managed to rally and win all seven games they’ve played without him this season.

Cairns’ final home and away game for the season comes against Perth on Friday, February 3.