Having only just returned from an ankle injury a fortnight ago, Mitch Brown is facing another frustrating stint on the sidelines.

The 27 year-old is expected to miss at least six weeks after re-injuring his ankle in the dying seconds of Saturday’s VFL loss to Richmond.

Speaking on the Skins Injury Update, High-Performance Manager, Justin Crow, said the positive was Brown could be back before season’s end.

”In the last minute of the game he got caught up in a tackle and the opposition player’s full weight went through his ankle,” Crow said.

“He’s torn part of his syndesmosis, the joint isn’t laxed though, which is good news.

“He’s seeing the specialist today, and whether he has surgery or not won’t affect his prognosis, he’s going to spend two weeks off feet and be back in to training at the six week mark.”

Fellow defender, Patrick Ambrose, is on track to return from a quad injury by Round 20.

Crow said the Club would take a low risk approach to Ambrose’s return.

“He is progressing in a positive manner, however because it hasn’t fully healed at this point we are going to hold him back from powerful kicking and high speed running.

“Although we are going to see Paddy back training this week and next, we are going to add another week to his recovery time.

“We’ll probably re-scan in a week or two to make sure we have the full heal before we clear him to play.”

Ben McNiece continues to rest as he looks to overcome symptoms of a whiplash injury.

“Ben had a whiplash type injury in the pre-season period, he had another collision injury two weeks ago at training that’s re-aggravated his symptoms.

“He’s been off feet now for a week, we’re going to give him until next Monday to see if we can get his symptoms to settle down.

We have to be patient, and hopefully for Ben he can get back on the track and start building up again.”

And on a positive note to finish, Jayden Laverde made his long awaited return via the VFL following a pre-season ankle injury.

Crow said Laverde showed positive signs in his first competitive hit out of the year.

“Jayden had a successful return on the weekend, he stretched eight and a half kilometres over three quarters.

“Next week he will take another step forward in that match volume and keep building up his match fitness and start to attack the rest of the season.”

The VFL’s next match is away to North Ballarat at Eureka Stadium on Sunday.