CLAYTON Oliver will miss the remainder of the AFL home-and-away season with a knee injury and fractures to his ribs.
The club’s High Performance Manager Selwyn Griffith provided an update on the Demon on Tuesday afternoon.
“Following the game, Clayton reported some rib soreness and knee soreness,” Griffith said.
“The following day, we had some scans on his knee and his ribs and that's shown that he has a low-grade PCL to one of his knees that he sustained in the game, with a player falling across his leg.
“He's also sustained three rib fractures in an incident during the game as well.
“It’s an unfortunate result for Clayton given we're coming towards the end of the season. He's been managing his body throughout the year really well and has been super professional about how he's gone about getting himself right every week.”
With Oliver unavailable for selection, the club has made the decision to bring forward planned surgery on his hand, which was originally scheduled for the conclusion of Melbourne’s 2024 AFL campaign.
Key defender Steven May is a chance to return to the side this weekend as they prepare to face the SUNS, set to re-join the main group for training tomorrow.
“Steven's progressing well,” Griffith said.
“He trained with the VFL guys on Friday, so he'll look to integrate into training tomorrow, and then we'll make a decision on his availability following training.”
Young Demon Caleb Windsor continues to work through his rehab of a syndesmosis injury and is likely to miss the remainder of the AFL home-and-away season.
“Caleb's been progressing really well,” Griffith said.
“He’s been super professional in and around his rehab and his strength work.
“He’s progressed out of the boot, and we're just looking at continuing to progress him over the following weeks from a loading perspective and looking like he could hopefully get to run in the next couple of weeks.
“It's unlikely we'll see him play again this year, just based on trying to give him the best opportunity to recover fully from this injury.”
In positive news for Charlie Spargo, the small forward is hitting some important milestones in his return-to-play schedule following Achilles surgery.
“Charlie’s recovered well from that [surgery],” Griffith said.
“He's progressing through some strength markers at the moment.
“He'll have a really strong block of that over the next three to four weeks, which will lead into his return to run.
“This will allow him to integrate into our off-season program and look to have him back, stronger and fitter for the start of 2024 - 2025 pre-season.”
