MELBOURNE had two late withdrawals from its side on Thursday night, with another two Demons going down with injury during the Round 4 clash with the Swans.
Tom McDonald was the man entering the game under an injury cloud, but his ankle held up well in game number 150.
Neville Jetta (knee) and Jay Lockhart (back) pulled out of the match at the last minute, while Oscar McDonald sat the last term on the bench with concussion.
Braydon Preuss was the other concern after hurting his shoulder on the quarter-time siren, but the 23-year-old managed to play out the second half.
The damage doesn’t appear too severe for these four Dees players, with this week’s nine-day break set to work in their favour.
Elite Performance Manager David Misson provides an update on all injury list changes below.
Injury List
Oscar McDonald | Concussion – Available
“Oscar has no issues after that concussion. He trained today and will be available for selection this week.”
Neville Jetta | Knee – Test
“Nev trained the day before the game and trained really well, but just pulled up a little bit sore and was a little bit swollen in the knee. He made a really good team decision – he didn’t want to let the team down. He was touch and go but obviously missed, so we’ll be hopeful for him this week.”
Jay Lockhart | Back – Test
“Jay just got a back spasm at training the day before the game coming off the flight, so again, he was a lot better the morning of the game, but we wanted to take a fit 100 percent team in, so Jay was left out. But he’s turned around really quickly over the weekend so he should be available.”
Braydon Preuss | Shoulder – Test
“He came back and had a scan on the shoulder which showed there wasn’t too much structural damage. We’ll review him today and monitor him during the week, but we hope he’ll be able to get out there on the weekend.”
Jordan Lewis | Hamstring – Test
“He did a big session on Friday back in Melbourne with the rehab group. He’ll have a normal week this week and look to make himself available.”
Kade Kolodjashnij | Concussion – TBA
“We will continue to monitor Kade after his head knock against Essendon. He has some lingering concussion symptoms and these will need to clear before we have more clear timeframes on his return.”
Steven May | Groin – 2-4 weeks
“Steven had his first couple of running sessions last week, so we’ll look to keep increasing his volume this week.”
Aaron vandenBerg | Foot – 4-6 weeks
“Vanders had a run outside last week. He pulled up a little bit sore, so we’ll review him today, but hopefully we can keep progressing his rehab this week.”
Joel Smith | Groin – 4-6 weeks
“Joel’s actually due to run today. He’s been gradually getting better and better, so we’ll look to start his re-loading program today.”
Jake Lever | Knee – 6 weeks
“Jake’s due to do essentially his first full session with the group on Wednesday. He’s almost ticked off all of his rehab – still needs to do a bit of contact work – but essentially he’s going to need a month of full training with the group before he plays, and that’ll start soon.”
Mitch Hannan | Knee – 6 weeks
“Mitch has been slowly increasing his speed and agility in rehab and is doing a lot of ball work. He’ll probably do the session the day before the game on Friday with the main group, so that’s a really big step forward for Mitch. Again, he’s going to need a decent block of training before he plays, but he’s certainly heading in the right direction.”
Jay Kennedy Harris | Knee – 8-10 weeks
“Jay had his first run outside on Friday and felt really good. That was really pleasing as we weren’t really sure how he’d go, but importantly he’s pulled up well, so we’ll start to ramp his volume up this week.”
Guy Walker | Shoulder – Indefinite
Aaron Nietschke | Knee – Season
