Melbourne’s Colin Sylvia is on the road to recovery from his broken jaw, and is still hopeful of playing in the season opener against Hawthorn at the MCG on Saturday 27 March.

Sylvia was on the receiving end of a heavy bump from West Coast’s Josh Kennedy during the first quarter of Saturday’s NAB Challenge at Casey Fields.

Sylvia was taken to hospital from Casey Fields and had his jaw operated on the following day.

He now has his sights set on returning to football and is optimistic about quick return.
“I’m setting myself to play Round One.  I’ve got a lot of hurdles to jump over and boxes to tick ,but that’s my aim at this stage. The medical staff at the Club are thinking Round Two is more realistic as my return date, so if I miss out on Round One, I will be doing everything to make sure I’m there for Round Two against Collingwood.”

Sylvia, who lost two teeth in the incident, cannot eat solid food and has relied heavily on soups to get him through the week. 

“I’m looking forward to having a good feed. I’m still on the soups and smoothies, which are a bit of challenge, but I’m getting better every day and I’m optimistic that I will be ready to go by Round One.”

The Sylvia incident has been highly scrutinised by the media because of the lack of any citing by the AFL match review panel.  Sylvia admitted to being surprised when the incident was overlooked, but is not getting caught up in any of the debate.

“I was surprised when it was not cited, but I’m also aware of the greyness in the rules and interpretations of the game.

“At the end of the day, I was in the line of the ball, the contact to my jaw was accidental, and Kennedy was laying a bump to protect his own player - which is just part of the game.

“I’ve got a broken jaw out of it, but I’ve had the operation now and I’m looking forward to getting back on the field and contributing to my teammates.”

Kennedy contacted Sylvia after the game to apologise for the injury.

“Josh texted me to apologise and to reiterate that it wasn’t intentional.  For Josh’s sake, I hope he plays the same way next time, because if I’m in a similar situation I would do the same thing as him.”