In episode seven of Inside Melbourne, we welcome a new co-host! Caty Price from Channel 10 joins the team, alongside this week’s special guest Jack Viney, as we look at the week that was. We go through Tuesday’s tough loss before discussing the bright future of young Sam Weidemen (5:00), get an update on Jack’s injury (7:40), chat about Charlie Spargo’s debut (9:00) and reveal the story behind Christian Petracca’s dog of a week (11:20). Jack answers some questions from the outer (14:00), as he takes us through his recent marriage proposal (24:15), looks ahead to Sunday’s game at Etihad (27:50) and gives insight into his long journey through injury (29:00).
CO-CAPTAIN Jack Viney says he is now only a couple of weeks away from a return, after deciding not to rush the recovery of his troublesome foot.
Speaking on Inside Melbourne, Viney acknowledged the long process – he hasn’t played since Round 21, 2017 – but said a fully-healed foot was the priority.
“When you can’t go out there and play with freedom, it’s even more frustrating, to be honest,” he said.
“At the end of the season, I said I’m going to take as much time as I need to make it better, so when I get out there, I’m playing with freedom, I feel good playing and I’m enjoying it.”
Viney, who carried a plantar fascia injury throughout last season before having surgery, said the extra time on the sidelines has been the result of several setbacks.
“The reason that it has taken so long is because it has been different things that have popped up, that have just extended my rehab time,” he said.
“We got it scanned [after Round 21] and it showed some bone stress there.
“I couldn’t walk on it at that time, and I was pretty confident that I had fractured it, but the scans didn’t show that at the time.”
Having not progressed in his recovery throughout the pre-season, the 24-year-old got some clarification towards the end of January when another scan revealed the extent of the damage.
“It did show there was a fracture there [this time], and my bone was still healing from the fracture,” he said.
“That was good in my own head to confirm that.”
Despite further hurdles with his “dodgy ankle” and stress signs in a bone in his toe towards the beginning of the season, Viney is now comfortable with where his foot is at.
“It’s definitely in a good spot,” he said.
“I trained yesterday with the VFL team. I felt like I trained really well and a couple of people who saw me train said it was the best they had seen me move in a couple of years.
“I’m 100% confident that when I come back, I will be right.”
