AB Mackinlay is battling osteitis pubis, which was the scourge of the AFL around 15 years ago.

All-time greats Wayne Carey and Chris Judd were among the highest profile casualties of the condition, which morphed from OP to groin soreness.

Mackinlay had a cortisone injection in the hip joint last month, but it failed to work.

His specialist will decide the next move.

"It's knocked me around mentally, just with that unknown time frame," he revealed.

"With some other injuries, you pretty much know how long it will take to recover.

"I know when I went to pre-season training, some of the guys were wondering what was wrong and how long I'll be on the sidelines for, but I couldn't answer the second part."

The 27-year-old is a rarity in modern Border and North East sport, racking up an Ovens and Murray Football League premiership (Lavington, 2019) and a Cricket Albury-Wodonga first grade flag, also at Lavington.

His specialist has told him there could be a number of reasons for the injury, but the fact he's played football and cricket consistently for 16 years, apart from the COVID-enforced break from football in 2020, has certainly played a role.

"It's virtually got to the stage where you can't do both," he explained.

"I had the first signs of it late in 2019 at 'Lavi', but was able to get through the finals and then we had 2020 off through COVID, so I could rest it.

"Then it started to flare up again at the end of last year, but I was able to finish the year.

"I was going to play cricket, but the injury just hasn't improved over the last few months, I suppose I've never really given myself a rest with the footy and cricket.

IN OTHER NEWS:

"When I played O and M if I wasn't one of the fittest guys, I'd fall behind as I'm not that tall and not naturally fast, I'm not a bloke with the greatest physical attributes, I had to have endurance."

To read more stories, download The Border Mail news app in the Apple Store or Google Play.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: