Clark suffered a Lisfranc tear in his right foot during Melbourne’s win against Greater Western Sydney in round 13 this year. He subsequently missed the rest of the season, after starting in fine form.
Elite performance manager Dave Misson said he was encouraged by Clark’s progress.
“Mitch got on the AlterG treadmill, which is where you can adjust the percentage of your body weight, which you’re running at, which is a pretty good tool for us,” he told melbournefc.com.au.
“For Mitch at the moment, it’s about controlling the load that’s going through his foot, so this treadmill allows us to start him today (Monday) at 80 per cent of his body weight.
“He’ll do another four or five sessions on that treadmill and progress to 95 per cent of his body weight and then we’ll get him outside and he’ll work through the normal rehab running programs.”
Misson said it was critical to get training volumes into Clark before focusing on other areas.
“It’s all about getting load through his foot. With your foot, you’ve got some very small muscles that aren’t being used a lot ordinarily,” he said.
“So it’s about trying to get those muscles working properly, as well as hoping that the surgery’s worked. We feel pretty confident that it has at this stage.
“Essentially, he’s progressed better than we expected up until this point, but there is obviously a long way to go.”
Misson added that Clark “won’t be doing any more than running up until Christmas”.
“We hope that by the time we break up by the end of December, he’s been doing a lot of solid conditioning running outside,” he said.
“Hopefully he’s started some agility work, even maybe some individual skill work, so by the middle of January next year, he’s back with the group, doing some skill training.”
Misson said it was hard to predict when Clark would be ready to go, but he is optimistic that it will be round one next year.
“It’s really difficult, because it’s a serious injury and it required significant surgery,” he said.
“There are different stages of his rehab that you probably hold your breath a little bit and hope that he’s going to get through that.
“We’re confident we’ve got a really strong program in place. Mitch is a really diligent professional athlete, so there are a couple of advantages there. But it comes down to whether the foot wants to do what we want it to do and what Mitch wants it to do.
“The first box has been ticked and the surgery has been a success and Mitch has done everything right in the interim. We’re just putting the program in place and hope that the program takes him to round one, where we’re pretty confident he’s going to be OK for that.”
.jpg)
Mitch Clark begins his first run at 80 per cent of his body weight
Mitch Clark warms up on the AlterG
.jpg)
Shannon Byrnes in full stride
.jpg)
Nathan Jones performs run throughs
Luke Tapscott runs laps at Monday morning's training session
Luke Tapscott and Shannon Byrnes share a laugh during the hard work
.jpg)
Josh Tynan tests out his reaction skills with backline development coach Andrew Nichol
