MELBOURNE hasn’t had much luck on the injury front in 2019, and that misfortune continues in the lead up to Round 15.
Jeff Garlett, who dislocated his shoulder at training last week, has been all but ruled out for 2019 after opting to go in for surgery.
“Jeff’s having surgery in a couple of weeks’ time,” Elite Performance Manager David Misson told Melbourne Media.
“The surgeon was quite strong on recommending we go down the surgical line.
“Essentially, it probably means that his season is done, but we’ll wait and see how he comes out of that surgery.”
Misson has also confirmed that Joel Smith won’t pull on the red and blue this year, as the club continues to be cautious with the versatile tall.
“We’ve attempted to rehab Joel’s groin conservatively and it wasn’t really making a lot of progress, so we felt we needed to back off his running for a period of time,” Misson said.
“We’re going to have another good crack at conservative management in two or three weeks’ time, hoping that the period of off-loading has helped that area heal.
“What that means is he won’t play again this season. Our aim is to really get him up and going for pre-season next year.”
A number of other players have been added to the injury list this week, with three Demons going down going down in the VFL on the weekend.
Fortunately, Kade Chandler’s corked hip isn’t a major concern and he should be ready to play again this weekend, but Declan Keilty hurt his ankle against Coburg and will miss a month of footy.
Kade Kolodjashnij’s bad luck continued as he copped another head knock late in Casey’s game and he will have to be monitored closely in the coming weeks, as will Billy Stretch (foot) who didn’t play at all last week.
“Billy just reported a little bit of foot soreness prior to the VFL game on the weekend,” Misson said.
“He’s obviously had some issues in that area previously, so we want to be pretty cautious, but it doesn’t look to be anything too serious.”
Although there has been more disappointment this week, there is some positive news, with Michael Hibberd looking likely to return against the Lions.
“Hibbo had a really good rehab session today and really, all he needs to do is get through training on Thursday and he’ll be available,” Misson said.
Jake Lever and Nev Jetta are also progressing well as they look to return from respective knee injuries in the coming weeks.
“Jake has improved significantly,” Misson said.
“He had a good run today and all things going well, he’ll run with the rehab boys this week, look to train next week and look to be available next week to play.
“Nev’s going really well too. He’ll do a big session on Saturday and then the decision will be around whether he plays at VFL level next week, or we keep training him and get him ready for the Bulldogs game.”
In other news, Oscar McDonald is set to return via Casey Demons after taking a couple of weeks off to get his body right for the back-half of the season.
“He’s been on a three-week mini pre-season, but he will play this week,” Misson said.
“We just feel he needed to reset physically and probably mentally, and he looks unbelievable now.
“He’s done some great work in the gym, he looks strong, really fit, and he’s done some really specific conditioning over and above all the footy work he’s done.
“We’re really pleased with how he’s approached it and we’re quietly confident it’s going to produce some really good results for Oscar.”
Injury List
Michael Hibberd | Collarbone – Test
Kade Chandler | Hip – Test
Jake Lever | Knee – 1-2 weeks
Neville Jetta | Knee – 2-3 weeks
Billy Stretch | Foot – 2-3 weeks
Declan Keilty | Ankle – 3-4 weeks
Jake Melksham | Foot – 4-6 weeks
Tom Sparrow | Knee – 4-6 weeks
Kade Kolodjashnij | Head – TBC
Aaron vandenBerg | Foot – TBC
Jeff Garlett | Shoulder – Season
Joel Smith | Groin – Season
Aaron Nietschke | Knee – Season
Guy Walker | Shoulder – Indefinite
