Collingwood’s Head of High Performance Jarrod Wade has provided an update on the status of a number of injured players ahead of Friday night’s Round 22 clash against Geelong.
Defender Nathan Murphy, who suffered a syndesmosis injury during Saturday’s loss to Hawthorn, could be back into the side sooner than expected following a positive return to the club.
“He looked like he had a decent ankle injury, we got a scan done and that showed some damage there. Those sorts of grade one or grade half syndesmosis injuries can respond really differently, and this is one of those ones as the saying goes ‘we assess the man and not the scan’ and that’s what we are doing with Murph,” Wade said.
“He’s bounced in today, earlier in the week really, really positively. So, he’ll be an assess during the week, we’ll be expecting that he gets up and does some of training on Wednesday and we’ve just got to decide whether that level of training is comfortable for us to pick him or not.”
“There will be an assessment go on through our main training session and we’ll be able to update after that. He’s recovered a lot better than what we probably first suggested, so a real positive one there.”
Young midfielder Nick Daicos is set for time on the sidelines following a direct impact injury to his knee.
“There was some bone bruising in there and the scan revealed a little bit of a hairline fracture. It’s on the very minor end of that at the moment, and we know that fractures are typically that five-to-six-week mark and we know that Nick will miss the final three rounds certainly. We’ve also got the bye weekend up our sleeves which gives us a bit more time to get to work and he’ll be available sometime throughout the finals,” Wade said.
There were two late exclusions from Collingwood’s VFL side set to take on Werribee after injuries to Josh Carmichael and Will Kelly.
Carmichael experienced referred pain in his hamstring during the week and a scan revealed inflammation in his hip.
“He had medical treatment through that (area) over the weekend that caused him to be unavailable for the game. He started to complete rehab and doing bike sessions, and he’s started to build up some strength throughout that area,” Wade said.
“We’re not expecting any issues and he will be an assess on Wednesday to see if that issue has settled down enough for him to be able to complete the main training session, and should he get through he’ll be available on the weekend.”
Kelly experienced an ankle roll during the captain’s run on the day before the VFL fixture, ruling him out of Sunday’s clash against Werribee.
“Sometimes those ankle rolls can settle within 24 hours, but his got progressively worse. He’s had a scan and revealed some ligament damage so it’s a bit on the more significant side of ankle rolls and he’ll miss another game this week,” Wade said.
“He’ll be restricted to some straight line running duties and then we’ll look to drop him into training next week and then we’ll assess his availability beyond that.”
Young midfielder Finn Macrae continues his recovery from a thumb injury, taking positive steps to a return to football.
“Really positive news earlier this week that he’s now been cleared for contact, should he get through Wednesday’s training session which we don’t see as being an issue, he’ll be available to play,” Wade said.
Defender Charlie Dean has also made more positive movement towards a return to football, following his long term foot injury.
“He’s progressing really well. He’s getting into more drills and more drills and more drills, and has started to get into some contested work, started to get into some more dense work where he’s having to react and apply all the agility things we’ve worked on with him in rehab,” Wade said.
“He’ll just keep on increasing his training volumes and training intensity over the coming weeks, with a view still to get him right for day one of pre-season next year.”
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