There's a few thing to keep in mind there I think. Firstly the plantar fascia release surgery is very much a last resort and not undertaken lightly.
They were managing Lynch for quite some time and would have exhausted every other method of treatment without getting a response, before having to turn to a surgical option.
That's because the surgery, like any surgery has inherent risks. Gibcus is a good example of this. In this case you need to accept those risks because Lynch has a condition that isn't responding to treatment and won't allow him to play at AFL capacity.
I understand the position that the medical team should be watching him like hawks for any signs of post operative issues but this is a complicated one to say the least.
Unquestionably the plantar fasciitis contributed to the stress fracture in his foot, it may have been because of the initial injury causing him to change gait or because the release changed the mechanics of his foot.
The logical question is why weren't they monitoring him for such issues when they are a logical outcome of the initial issue, and the answer to that would be they almost certainly did. Stress fractures of this nature are often very difficult to pick up with scans unless they progress to be more significant fractures, and with the plantar fascia issues present some discomfort in that area of the foot is readily explainable and to not take further investigation is a reasonable position to take. If the discomfort was there without the plantar fascia issues then you would certainly be further investigating a potential stress fracture.
People would generally respond to that with why not just investigate anyway given the stakes are high, but we don't just send players for scans as a fishing expedition, these resources are part of the health system and needed by many more critical cases than footballers who might have an injury.
From the outside I can't see any obvious faults with what has happened with Lynch, and I'm always prepared to question high performance decisions I find peculiar.
Basically he's had the worst end of the scale of plantar fasciitis and then quickly developed the worst end of a stress issue in his foot. It's unusual and for me just really unfortunate.
