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“Jog it off”: Zorko’s ill-timed message to injured Lions teammate
SEN • June 17th, 2025 1:35 pm
Brisbane veteran Dayne Zorko would like to have his time again after watching Jack Payne go down with a knee injury in Saturday’s loss to GWS.
Payne fell awkwardly late in the first quarter after taking a mark in defensive 50 and immediately grabbed at his left knee, with scans later revealing that he ruptured his patella tendon.
Zorko was at the fall of the contest when Payne went down, and upon seeing his teammate on the ground, his initial reaction was to offer support by telling him that he’d be ok and to ‘jog it off’.
Once he realised the 25-year-old was in severe pain, Zorko and his teammates knew that it had to be something more serious.
“I was right at his feet, to be honest with you,” Zorko told SENQ Breakfast.
“There was a little bit of a noise, obviously him impacting the ground didn't sound great, but I said, ‘Come on Jack, you'll be right, run it out, jog it off’. That wouldn’t have gone down well.
“Then he was just screaming, ‘My kneecap, my kneecap!’. So we knew then when we could see there was pain on his face.
“I think most of us probably thought it was an ACL at the start, but traditionally with an ACL, you get that instant shock of ‘Oh, something's gone wrong’, and it hurts, but then the pain eases.
“When it kept going, the pain, we knew it was something a little bit more serious.”
Zorko revealed that Payne underwent surgery on Monday to repair the rupture, and while he’s unsure of how long the defender will miss, the club has already ruled him out for the remainder of the 2025 season.
“He's as tough as they come,” Zorko said.
“It’s really unfortunate and he went under surgery yesterday, so I don’t know how long out he’ll be.
“Fingers crossed it all went smoothly and he's on his way to recovery now.”
The Lions will be without Payne when they face the Cats in Geelong on Friday night.
