He was determined to keep it quiet during the Brier but Manitoba third Jon Mead almost did not even make it to Regina.

Mead was suffering from an injury to his sliding knee that may yet need surgery.

"I don't know about that," Mead said yesterday. "It's possible maybe. It's just some ligaments around the knee that are badly strained. The doctor said I just have to rest. The only thing bad for it is curling. Once the season's over, the doctor said it should be fine."

The knee started bothering Mead during the Safeway Select in Steinbach because he was throwing so many peels.

"That's when I first started getting sore but I didn't go for treatments there," Mead said. "But when we were in Newfoundland (for a Grand Slam event), I was worried that I wouldn't be able to play in Regina."

Back in Winnipeg, doctors told Mead he could not damage the knee any further by competing at the Brier.

"They worked on it in Regina too, but that had no effect on how I was curling at the Brier, good or bad," he said. "It just hurts, that's all."

Manitoba skip Jeff Stoughton did not use the injury as an excuse for Manitoba's failure to make the playoffs in Regina.

"It was just two or three shots here and there that everyone of us missed at different times that we needed to make to string together some wins," he said.

Stoughton is entered in both a World Curling Tour cashspiel and the Grand Slam's Players Championship next month.

"Hopefully, he'll (Mead) be OK for our last two events," he said.