MELBOURNE is hopeful Jeremy Howe will be available for up to two of its NAB Challenge matches, with the versatile defender making progress from a hamstring injury.
Howe will miss the first pre-season game against Fremantle and manager of football Josh Mahoney said the club was taking a cautious approach to his return to training.
“Given the position of the injury in his hamstring, we were always going to treat this conservatively,” Mahoney told melbournefc.com.au.
“Jeremy’s progressing each week but we still expect him to be two or three weeks away from starting to get back into training and then to start playing games.”
Meanwhile, midfielder Bernie Vince has suffered a setback in his return from a hamstring injury and will be sidelined for three to four weeks.
“Unfortunately Bernie re-injured his hamstring quite late in his recovery from the original injury and he’s started back in the rehab process,” Mahoney said.
“It’ll be two to three weeks of training before he gets ready to play again.
“He’s missed quite a bit of pre-season, originally with a shoulder injury, so we’ll have to make a decision on how much training he has to do before he’s cleared to play again.”
First year midfielder Alex Neal-Bullen is expected to be unavailable for at least four weeks as he returns from a knee injury.
“Alex had initially hurt his knee – his patella – during a wrestling session, and he had another episode while training,” Mahoney said.
“Although there wasn’t much damage caused by the incident, we took the opportunity to take some extra time with him to make sure he builds up a lot of extra strength around his knee.
“We’ll continue that program so hopefully that prevents the injury occurring again in the future.”
Fellow draftee Christian Petracca will miss the 2015 season following a knee reconstruction and Mahoney said there was a focus on keeping the midfielder mentally fresh as he commences the rehabilitation process.
“Christian had his surgery to repair the ACL and from all reports, the surgery went well,” he said.
“He’ll just start the rehab process for the next period of time and given that he’s out for a long term, we’ll work closely with Christian on building a plan for what the next nine to 12 months looks like for him.
“This will include doing some different jobs around the club, assisting with potentially some scouting of opposition clubs and recruiting, and also having some time away from the club to make sure that he stays mentally fresh during this period.”
The other long-term injury on Melbourne’s list, Jack Trengove remains sidelined indefinitely but Mahoney said his condition had improved in recent weeks.
“Jack has progressed out of the moon boot now and he’s walking around in runners which is a big progression from where he has been,” Mahoney said.
“So he’s starting to increase the load on his foot and hopefully it continues to repair as it has so far.”
Melbourne’s Injury List
Chris Dawes (suspended) – Round 2, premiership season
Jeremy Howe (hamstring) – 3-4 weeks
Alex Neal-Bullen (knee) – 4-6 weeks
Christian Petracca (knee) – season
Jack Trengove (foot) - indefinite
Bernie Vince (hamstring) – 3-4 weeks
