Hawthorn defender Matthew Suckling talks after snapping ACL in his knee Hawthorn defender Matthew Suckling will miss the season after snapping his anterior cruciate ligament. HAWTHORN defender Matthew Suckling has spoken about the agonising pain he felt in the seconds after his knee buckled under him last weekend. Suckling, 24, ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament during the Hawks' loss to Richmond in Launceston and is on a 12-month recovery program. He admitted yesterday he was tempted by the quick-fix LARS method, but believed the best method of recovery was traditional reconstruction. Left-footer Suckling's injury leaves a huge hole at half back for the Hawks, and captain Luke Hodge admitted this week he might have to return to a defensive sweeping role in Suckling's absence. Suckling admitted he shed a tear after realising he was going to miss the entire season. "Immediately I was in a fair bit of pain, probably the most pain I've ever been in, so I knew something pretty serious had happened," he said. About a minute after that, there was no pain at all and I've been able to walk around ever since. I haven't even had a pain killer so I'm pretty lucky in that regard that it's not aching every night. I know people that have done it have said that it hurts a lot when it happens and then they feel like they can go back out and play. As soon as I felt I was in that boat, I was starting to get pretty shattered. I saw the docs and the physio give each other a sort of dull look and they took a couple of deep breaths, so I knew what they were going to say. Then they said it and left me in there to my own devices and let it sink in by myself. I shed a few tears. Suckling told the Hawthorn website he believed the traditional reconstruction would give him a better chance to make a complete recovery. "I'm just going the normal reconstruction with the hamstring graft," he said. We did speak about the LARS. It's obviously pretty tempting to be back out there in June or July but we thought it was best for me to get the traditional method, miss one season and be right to go next pre-season. I come into the club every day at the moment and work on all my leg muscles to keep them firing. Once I have surgery it makes the transition back into training easier and makes for less complications when I'm back training. Come NAB Cup next year, I'll be 12 months post-surgery so that's perfect to be back playing. I'm just looking forward to next year.