Vancouver Warriors star Mitch Jones’ foot injury won’t prompt ‘golden Band-Aid’ trade

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The Warriors hosts expansion Panther City Lacrosse League Saturday at Rogers Arena in their first game since finding out their top scorer is sidelined for eight weeks

Mitch Jones, in action against the San Diego Seals in 2019, had surgery to repair a broken bone in his foot and is expected to be out eight weeks.
Mitch Jones, in action against the San Diego Seals in 2019, had surgery to repair a broken bone in his foot and is expected to be out eight weeks. Photo by Arlen Redekop /PNG files

Vancouver Warriors general manager Dan Richardson promises he won’t be following key injury news with blockbuster trade news.

The Warriors confirmed Wednesday that star forward Mitch Jones had surgery to repair a broken bone in his foot. He’s expected to be sidelined eight weeks.

Richardson, coach Chris Gill and various Warrior players have pledged that they’re improved this season and are capable of climbing up the National Lacrosse League standings. Richardson said Thursday that the Jones’ situation won’t lead to him making a panicked trade to bring in a top scorer to fill in that gap.

The Warriors have made the playoffs just eleven in the past seven seasons.

Vancouver (2-3) returns to its 18-game regular season Saturday at Rogers Arena, taking on the Panther City Lacrosse Club (1-5), the league’s expansion team from Fort Worth, Texas.

“The vultures will be circulating, asking for our draft picks, and it’s not going to happen,” Richardson said. “They’re going to offer some guy on the south side of his career.

“The easy way out is to trade away your future and get a golden Band-Aid. It doesn’t work. We’re going to hold the line. We’re going to figure it out ourselves.”

The 30-year-old Jones suffered, oddly enough, what is referred to as a Jones fracture, or a break in the bone on the pinky toe side of the foot. It’s named after Dr. Robert Jones, an orthopedic surgeon who reported on his own injury in 1902.

It’s a common ailment in football, basketball and soccer players. Jones’ came about innocuously, as he was getting ready to go out on the floor and practice last Friday in Denver in preparation for Vancouver’s road game Saturday versus the Colorado Mammoth. Jones suddenly felt a pain in his foot, according to Richardson.

NEXT GAME

saturday

Vancouver Warriors vs. Panther City Lacrosse Club

7 pm, Roger’s Arena. TV: TSN.

Vancouver replaced him in Saturday’s lineup with fellow left-hander Ryan Martel, who had been on the practice roster. Coming off an 18-15 loss to Colorado in Vancouver on Jan. 7 where they gave up leads of 7-0 and 10-2, the Warriors opted to healthy scratch veteran forwards Logan Schuss and Jordan McBride.

Vancouver had trouble getting in any synch offensively this time around and lost 9-4 to the Mammoth (4-1). The Warriors had averaged 11.5 goals per game through their first four contests.

“We still have 13 games left in this season,’ Richardson said. “We like our defence. We like our goaltending. We should be able to win games when we hold a team to nine goals. Our offense was out to lunch last game.

“We still believe in our group. We need to produce.”

Along with Jones, Vancouver will be missing forward Marty Dinsdale, 30, on Saturday. Richardson said Thursday that he was going on Vancouver’s COVID-19 protocol list.

Schuss highlights the group of Warriors to keep an eye on now. The 31-year-old lefty was a 35-goal man in 17 games in 2016-17, but his numbers have fallen since. He had 14 goals in 10 games in 2019-20, the last season for the NLL prior to this year.

He has three goals and 12 points in four games this year.

Fellow southpaw forward Adam Charalambides, 25, who was Vancouver’s first-round pick, No. 4 overall in last off-season’s NLL Draft, has two goals and six points through five games.

Jones was eighth in league scoring going into last week with his 26 points, including 12 goals. He was second in NLL scoring with 74 points, including 28 goals, in 13 games when the NLL shut down its 2019-20 season in March due to COVID-19. Vancouver wound up 4-9.

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