Key defender Patrick Ambrose could be available for selection for Essendon’s crucial clash against Port Adelaide on Sunday.
Ambrose’s recovery from a pre-season broken wrist has been seamless and Essendon Physical Performance Manager Justin Crow says the defender is quickly closing in on his return.
The 26-year-old underwent an x-ray on Monday, which came back with “really good” results, and Crow said he could be on the selection table by the end of the week.
“(It’s) a credit to the surgeon there, because the wrist seems to have responded really well with the surgery,” Crow said on Tuesday in the SKINS Injury Update.
“Pat will train this week. If he’s able to do things functionally – tackling, marking, handling of the ball – then he’ll be made available to play given he’s been able to do a heap of running over the last number of weeks.”
While Orazio Fantasia and David Myers made successful returns against the Western Bulldogs on Sunday, Ben McNiece just missed the boat.
However, Crow said the small defender has overcome his minor hamstring troubles and is now ready to stake his claims for selection.
“Last week we had a test with Orazio, Dave Myers and Ben McNiece. Raz and Dave Myers both passed and were clear to play.
“Ben just wasn’t quite there yet, we’ll take another week with him.
“He had a good session on the weekend, he’ll train this week and we’re expecting him to be available to play.”
Fellow defender Matt Dea was a late withdrawal from the loss to the Bulldogs and is set for a stint on the sidelines.
“Matt Dea had some leg pain, we ended up withdrawing him from the squad,” Crow said.
“When we investigated that he had some mild boney stress in his fibula, the bone on the outside of his leg.
“What we’ll do in this case is we’ll give him a couple of weeks off feet and build him up reasonably quickly over a couple-week period to basically give the bone some time to cool down and then build him back up to play.”
David Zaharakis and Jake Stringer both had minor concerns in the match, but Crow said neither had any lasting affects from their respective head and eye injuries.
“David Zaharakis came off bleeding to the head. He had stitches (and) they’re fine.
“He didn’t show any sign of concussion, played out the game and he’ll be available this week.
“Jake Stringer got a poke in the eye. We got that checked out because we wanted to make sure that the player’s retina is all fine – all that is all clear.
“He’s no longer got any blurred vision and he’ll be available to train and play this week.”
Crow said he was happy with the progress defender Martin Gleeson has shown in his recovery from an ankle fracture, and said speedster Travis Colyer was also improving quickly.
Colyer reportedly ran nine kilometres on Tuesday as he continues to build back his fitness after a foot injury.
“He’s building up his training volumes, we’re expecting him to get to the point where he can join in a small amount of training over the next couple of weeks,” Crow said.
“Trav is progressing well, we’re hoping to get those long-term guys back on track and on the park soon as well.”
