Young midfielder Darcy Parish will take his place in Essendon’s line-up against Adelaide on Friday night.
The 20-year-old had precautionary scans on Monday, but the news was good for Bombers fans on Tuesday.
“Darcy Parish’s scan was clear, he trained fully today and he’ll be available for the game,” Physical Performance Manager Justin Crow said on the SKINS Injury Update.
The news wasn’t as good for two other Bombers who had scans on Monday, with David Myers and Ben McNiece unavailable for selection against the Crows.
“Dave Myers had calf tightness. His scan showed no sign of any muscle tear, which was a good thing, however he won’t be available for the game,” Crow said.
“McNiece’s scan showed some mild upper hamstring irritation around where it inserts into the bone at the top of the pelvis and he also will not be available this weekend.”
Crow said the precautionary scans were a result of taking a careful approach with the side ahead of its blockbuster against Adelaide.
“Our approach from there heading to round one was to make absolutely sure that we knew what was going on and made some good decisions around selection into what we expect to be a red-hot round one game against Adelaide.”
Key defender Patrick Ambrose fractured his scaphoid (wrist) while outstretching his hand at training on Friday, and Crow said he was unable to pinpoint a return date until after his surgery was completed on Tuesday afternoon.
“We’ll wait and see how that surgery goes to get an exact prognosis, normally players might be able to return at around the one-month mark.
“He’ll be likely to be able to keep up his running volumes and do a reasonable amount of training and maintain his fitness while his wrist heals.”
One player earmarked for a potential return to the side in Ambrose’s absence is Mitch Brown, and Crow confirmed that the former Cat had overcome recent groin trouble since missing the side’s second JLT clash with Geelong.
“He fully trained today. He did a good session on the weekend instead of the match and he’ll be available to play.”
Fellow defender Martin Gleeson suffered a long-term ankle injury in that JLT hit-out and Crow said his surgery went well.
“That was a successful fixation, however he will have to spend 12 weeks in a boot and then we’re building him up to play after that,” he said.
“The light in the tunnel is that we believe that gives us time, all going well, for Marty to play again later this season and we’ll be updating our members and fans as more information comes to hand through that rehab.”
Dangerous forward Orazio Fantasia is also progressing well, but Crow said the club would not rush his return to the team.
“He has just started running at the start of this week, we’ll be building him up as he’s able.
“The key thing with Orazio is that he’s obviously a high-speed and high-volume player on match day and we need to make sure that we get enough work into him that he’s ready to play when he does return.”
Crow said youngsters Jayden Laverde and Kobe Mutch reached milestones on Tuesday as they completed some training with the main group and were both “very much on track”, while Travis Colyer would return to running outside this week.
He also said that despite some recent injury setbacks he expected a strong side to take on the Crows this weekend.
“Generally things are going well, there are a couple of players unavailable, but (we’re) very much looking forward to taking a fit and healthy side into the game against Adelaide.”
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