Cartilage operation for P. D. Sullivan

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33539, 21 May 1974, Page 26

Cartilage operation for P. D. Sullivan

(N.Z.P.A. Staff Correspondent)

CANBERRA.

The former Australian Rugby union captain, P. D. Sullivan, who switched to Rugby league at the beginning of this season, will not play again this year, and his football career may have come to an end.

Sullivan, aged 26, who captained Australia in three tests, expects to enter hospital in Sydney this week and have the cartilages in his left knee removed. “That is the season for me,” he said yesterday, “and it could be the end of football altogether.” Since his shock announcement in April that he was switching to the paying code, Sullivan has had four matches for the St George League Club — two in the first-grade team and two in the second team.

“I went to league because they made me an offer I could not resist,” Sullivan said. “I was newly married and trying to get a house, and it was something I could not refuse.” Sullivan said: “I have a few regrets now and again, especially when I saw the All Blacks play and when I attended the centenary dinner on Saturday night. I felt a bit sad and a bit disappointed.

“Switching to league was a very hard decision to make. They (St George) had been

after me for a couple of years, and other clubs had too, but I never thought I would accept any of the offers,” Sullivan said. “But my legs haven’t been right for,a while, and 1 may not have been picked. I love Rugby union and playing it made me very happy,” he said. RECORD Sullivan played 24 games for Australia after first being picked against the Springboks in 1971. He played in 15 tests and toured New Zealand (1972), France (1972), and England and Wales (1973) as well as playing in home series against France and Tonga. He took over the captaincy from G. V. Davis last year. Sullivan also played for the President’s and Invitation XV S against the All Blacks in Wellington and Auckland last year.

Athletic*.—G. Tuttle, of the Beverly Hills Striders, won the sixty-fourth running of the 7.8-mlle Bay to the Breakers race in San Francisco. Tuttle was one of 5495 runners entered in the world’s largest foot race. His time was 37min 07sec.