PEARCE HANLEY could make his return to football on Sunday as one of two major inclusions for the Lions’ clash against GWS at Spotless Stadium.
Elite Performance Manager, Brett Burton, told the Bupa Recovery Report that Vice-Captain, Hanley, will be available to play provided he gets through main training on Thursday.
“From his hip surgery in the preseason, he’s had a really good rehab program the last month and built up some good game like volumes in the past two weeks.
“He’s raring to go, all going to plan and getting through main training on Thursday, he’ll be available to play”, Burton said.
The Lions also look likely to regain midfielder Jack Redden. Redden was a late withdrawal against Essendon a fortnight ago with a back injury.
“He’s tracking along fairly well and if he gets through main training he will be available to play.”
Brisbane were the walking wounded on Sunday. Youngster, James Aish, the most recent casualty, after scans confirmed a broken jaw, adding to those picked up by captain Tom Rockliff (ribs), Claye Beams (knee), Jed Adcock (calf) and Ryan Harwood (concussion) in the 22-point defeat to St Kilda.
Aish was accidentally collected high by the hip of Saints ruckman Tom Hickey in a second-quarter marking contest and was taken from the field. He passed a concussion test before returning and playing out the match.
“Unfortunately for Aishy he just got a good one, a knee right to the jaw. He did a really good job to be able to play on with that and finish off the game so it certainly says a bit about his character.
“We’ll expect him to be out for four to five weeks with that.”
Captain Tom Rockliff is expected to be sidelined for the next month. Scans after the game revealed Rockliff had fractured the same three ribs that were broken in round one against Collingwood after a collision in the first 10 minutes of Sunday’s match.
“He’s refractured those ribs. He’ll be out for a while with that and will obviously need to monitor from a pain point of view but also make sure they’re healed up before he plays again.”
While Jed Adcock will miss the next few weeks after injuring his calf.
“Jed tore his calf late in the game, you’d expect him to be out for a couple of weeks. Obviously we’ve got the bye next week so we’ll assess him and he might be available in Round 12 or 13.”
The Bupa Support Team are also monitoring a calf injury to defender Darcy Gardiner sustained during training last week.
“Darcy tweaked a calf in the main training session, so it’s a pretty minor calf. We’ll see how he goes this week, he’ll be touch and go to play if not he’ll be available after the bye.”
The Lions are still awaiting information on an injury to Claye Beams’ knee.
“Another one from a character point of view”, Burton said.
“Beamsy was clearly inhibited with that knee injury but was able to push through. We didn’t have anyone else able to come on. We’re getting him assessed and will have further information as the day goes on.”
And in better news, Ryan Harwood should resume his place in the Lions’ line-up, provided he passes the required concussion assessment during the week.
“Harzy was subbed out of the game from concussion we’re just going to assess that as the days go by and he’ll do the concussion protocols daily. We’ll assess him before Thursday training and see if he’s right to go.”
Full injury list at the BUPA Health Centre
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