EXCITING young Demon Christian Salem will miss the next month after injuring his “good” hamstring.
Elite performance manager Dave Misson said Salem suffered the injury during training last weekend.
“It was actually his good hamstring that he injured last Saturday at training, unfortunately,” he told Dee TV.
“It’s quite similar to his original injury, but it’s just on the other leg, so that’s probably a four-week injury.”
Big man Chris Dawes and small forward Jay Kennedy-Harris face fitness tests this round, according to Misson.
“They’ll train with our VFL squad at Casey [on Thursday night] and if they get through there, then they’re a chance to play some VFL on the weekend,” he said.
“They’ve both been going really well and they both trained well [on Tuesday], so we’ll expect them to have a run around this weekend.”
Misson said defender Colin Garland “put in an amazing effort” against Collingwood on Queen’s Birthday last round, after he played injured.
“He broke his hand in the first quarter and he knew we were struggling a little bit and we were one man down, so he played the whole game with a broken hand,” he said.
“He had surgery on that hand [on Tuesday] and the surgery went pretty well. But he’ll consult his surgeon on Monday and from that we’ll determine how much time he has off.
“He showed some great mental toughness and team spirit to stay out there with a broken hand.”
Rookie Aaron vandenBerg will miss “probably three to four weeks” with a hamstring injury, said Misson.
“Aaron vandenBerg was subbed out at half-time with a hamstring strain and the scans showed it was a low grade muscle strain,” he said.
He added that powerful Demon Dean Kent was “running really well” after undergoing hamstring surgery.
“He’s probably running at 80 per cent at the moment,” Misson said.
“He had a really good session [on Tuesday], but it’s a surgical repair, so he’s another four to six weeks away.”
Versatile tall Sam Frost has been earmarked for a late July/August return from a toe injury.
“He’s spending a lot of time out of his moon boot this week, with a view to throwing the moon boot away at the end of the week, which he’ll be pretty pleased about,” he said.
“From there, it’s a pretty gradual ramp up with his impact loading and running, so he’s looking at six to eight weeks.”
Misson said Jack Trengove (foot) and Christian Petracca (knee) were still working hard from their long-term injuries.
“They’re still whacking away [in rehab]. Christian is a chance of having a run towards the end of next week and we just want a couple more things ticked off with his knee and his strength work, but he’ll run pretty soon,” he said.
“Jack Trengove is going really well. He has another scan towards the end of July, which will determine what our movements are, with regards to his running.”
Melbourne injury list: round 11
Chris Dawes (calf) – test
Sam Frost (toe) – 6-8 weeks
Colin Garland (hand) – TBC
Jay Kennedy-Harris (groin) – test
Dean Kent (hamstring) – 4-6 weeks
Christian Petracca (knee) – season
Christian Salem (hamstring) – 4 weeks
Jack Trengove (knee) – season
Aaron vandenBerg (hamstring) – 3-4 weeks
