David Myers is just a fortnight away from having his splint removed and ramping up his ball work ahead of a return to the senior side.

Myers damaged the tendon in his finger in a training drill a month ago and is likely to be available for selection in four weeks.

“David Myers has now got two weeks until he’s out of the hand splint,” High Performance Manager Justin Crow said.

“Once he’s done that he’ll have a couple of weeks getting back handling the ball and then he’ll become available.

“He’s joining in as much of football training as he can. We’ve seen him in some quite serious football drills, protecting his hand but making sure he keeps up his football movement.”

Crow is confident Myers will be able to make a smooth return because of the volume of work he’s been able to get through during the pre-season.

“If we look back over the last six years, he’s had his best pre-season in our memory and since we’ve been measuring these pre-seasons with GPS,” Crow said.

“He’s still got fuel in the tank and we’re keeping up his football work as much as possible.

“Two weeks until he’s out of the splint, then two weeks handling the ball, fitness won’t be an issue. So four weeks from now he’ll be available to play.”

Matthew Leuenberger remains on target for a round three return as he continues his recovery from a hamstring injury.

“Leuey is tracking well, he was out there doing a little bit of a run around today,” Crow said.

“He’s still aiming to be ready and put his hand up to be picked against Carlton." 

The decision to send Jayden Laverde in for surgery appears to have paid off with doctors uncovering damage that couldn’t be picked up in the original scan.

The length of time he'll be sidelined remains the same with the Club targeting a mid-season return.

“We deliberated for a while about whether Jayden would be better off going in a boot and having conservative management or having surgery,” Crow said. 

“He had his surgery this morning and the news from the operation was that something that couldn’t quite be seen on the scan was a rupture of his medial ligament in his ankle.

“So that’s been repaired and we definitely dodged a bullet there.

“That’s a pleasing result because that certainly did need to be operated on.”

Jordan Ridley continues his recovery from a back problem and has been making progress in the gym.

“Jordan is going great, he’s walking around pain free,” Crow said.

“Although we know it’s something that needs to heal – he’s starting to wonder if there is anything wrong with him.

“He has been in the gym and he’s put on a couple of kilograms already over the last three weeks.”

Crow is pleased with the position of the playing list on the eve of the season with only a handful of players unavailable for selection.


“Playing our first game on February 16 has made this period of pre-season seem like a long time but it has also been good for our preparation,” Crow said.

“A big shout out to our physio team and our conditioning staff – Paul Turk, Des O’Sullivan and Jesse Campisi for all of their hard work.

“We’ve got 85% of our list through 85% of our pre-season and that’s a really good effort and a really good indicator for us having a good year.”