ELITE performance manager Dave Misson says co-captain Jack Grimes’ collarbone operation was a success, and he should be on track for a return in six to eight weeks.
Grimes suffered a broken collarbone during the opening quarter against Carlton at the MCG last Sunday. He was immediately taken to hospital via ambulance. Misson was optimistic about the 23 year-old’s rehabilitation program.
“Grimesy’s injury on the weekend was very unfortunate,” he told melbournefc.com.au.
“He essentially broke his collarbone - that was operated on yesterday (Monday) and it was a good, successful operation. He had a plate put in the collarbone to hold it together, but it’s going to be an extended rehab.
“The good thing is that he’ll be able to start running in a couple of weeks, so from a running, fitness point of view, he won’t be hindered. It’s more the six or seven week period is where we’ll need to ease him back in.”
Misson said another key Demon, Mitch Clark, has returned to his native Western Australia for some rest, before he will resume his rehab from a foot injury.
“Mitch had the screw taken out of his foot last week and he’s gone home to Perth for a week, this week,” he said.
“He’ll be back on the rehab trail when he gets back.
“The doctor’s very happy with the procedure, and it looks really good, so we’re hopeful that we’ll see him in six to eight weeks.”
Versatile tall Jack Watts (hamstring) and ruckman Mark Jamar (groin) are set to miss another one to two weeks, according to Misson.
“Both of those [injuries] were pretty minor. They’re probably 50/50 for this week, but we just felt that we’d keep them out for this week and let them push their claims for the week after,” he said.
“Unfortunately, the VFL has got a bye this week, so they can’t play anywhere, so we felt that just another week doing some work would guarantee them to play somewhere next week.”
Misson said rookie Nathan Stark would also be sidelined for two more weeks.
“He just tweaked his groin a little bit at training. We feel that, as a young kid – we need to give him a couple of weeks at training, so he’ll be out for a couple. It’s not serious, and he’ll train at the end of this week and we’ll just get a couple of weeks of work into him, before we send him back out there.”
