CLASSY duo Dom Tyson (knee) and Christian Salem (concussion) are progressing well after suffering pre-Christmas injuries on Melbourne’s three-day camp late last year.
Elite performance manager Dave Misson said the pair was on the road to recovery.
“Dom Tyson has started running outside and is going well with a lot of his strength work. We’ll look to up his running in the next couple of weeks, but he’s going well,” he told Melbourne TV.
“Christian, based on the fact he had a couple of concussions during the year and then he had one on the camp, he’s been no contact since then. He’ll come back into full contact on Friday.”
Misson said small forward Dean Kent was also making strides after a back complaint pre-Christmas.
“Kenty just before we broke for Christmas, he had a flair in his back. He’s had some of that previously during the season, so we just want to use the time now to settle it down,” he said.
“He’s started running outside and doing some good strength work and it’ll take him another month before he’s ready to play again, but hopefully we feel he’ll be ready to take part in the pre-season series.”
Reigning best and fairest winner Jack Viney (hip) and defender Michael Hibberd (knee) were both training “really well”, Misson said.
Talls Tom McDonald and Cam Pedersen, who both had shoulder reconstructions at the end of last season, are now right at the end of their rehab programs.
“[We’ve] almost given them the all-clear for full contact now by the time we get to Maroochydore,” he said.
“They’ll be full contact into the main group.”
Misson said young key forward Liam Hulett (ankle) was OK after a scare on the track last week and developing ruckman Mitch King continued to make inroads.
“[Liam had] no structural damage and he’ll … look to work his way back into the group – either later in the week or next week,” he said.
“Mitch King came off that ACL from early last year. He did his first session with the group [on Monday], so he’ll look to progress his time in the main group over the next few weeks, but he’s going well.”
Recruits Mitch Hannan and Lochie Filipovic were being eased with their training loads.
“Mitch came to us with a shoulder reco, which he had done just after the season finished.”
“He’s probably two weeks behind Cam [Pedersen] and Tom [McDonald], so he’ll start doing some more contact work in rehab. By the time the camp comes around, he’ll start to transition back into the group.
“Lochie came to us with a bit of an Achilles problem, but that’s settled down really well. We’re just looking to get a bit more work into him before we unleash him onto the group.”
