Hawthorn injury update: Mitch Lewis, Tom Mitchell back in full training, updates on Jarman Impey and Jack Gunston
Hawthorn’s breakout forward star Mitch Lewis is back in full training after off-season shoulder surgery, while both Jarman Impey and Jack Gunston are reportedly progressing well in their paths back to health.
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Young gun forward Mitchell Lewis will tackle season 2020 without the shoulder issues that forced him to have surgery at the end of last year’s breakout campaign.
Brownlow medallist Tom Mitchell, who suffered a horror broken leg last pre-season and missed the entirety of 2019, is also back in full contact work and has been involved in match simulation, while the Hawks say stars Jarman Impey and Jack Gunston are progressing well after surgery.
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“Mitch had shoulder surgery post-season last year,” physical performance manager Luke Boyd said.
“He spent the Christmas period avoiding contact from the other players and then since returning he’s been able to integrate back into full game play.”
Lewis, 21, emerged in his second season as a tall forward with a vice-like grip who booted 20 goals in 12 games last year.
He will hope Mitchell can get back to his best, extracting the footy to allow the Hawks outside runners to give him silver service.
“Similar to Mitch Lewis, he was non-contact-based before Christmas but, since returning he’s been integrating back into full-contact work and was able to get 30 minutes of game-play with the boys on Wednesday (last week) and looked good, looked comfortable,” Boyd told the club’s website.
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“If anything, we’re probably trying to make sure he doesn’t push himself too much at this stage because we still have a number of weeks before we start the season.”
Impey, who, in Round 18, wrecked his ACL against Geelong, and Gunston, who required ankle surgery in the off-season, are still working toward full training.
“Jars has been running on land for just over three weeks now,” Boyd said.
“I would say he’s started transitioning into that performance running mode now, which is a good sign, and I know that this morning he looked really, really impressive on the training track so we’re really happy with how he’s progressed.
“Unfortunately, Jack required a minor clean up of the ankle just before Christmas. He’s progressed well since then, he’s commenced running and we will start to build that over the next three weeks.
“We’re hoping that somewhere around three-four weeks he will be back in the ball program and we’ll progress him from there.”
Oft-injured former Giant Tom Scully runs into a pre-season with no issues, while Dylan Moore’s troublesome groin is still three-four weeks away.
Boyd hailed the new brigade of youngsters who have made their homes at Waverley as “exceptional”.
“It’s well documented in the last couple of days that Finn (Maginness) ran an impressive time trial, Emerson Jeka, Harry Pepper, Josh Morris and Will Day have integrated into our program for the first time really, really well and they’re a really good group of boys so we’re rapt to have them here,” he said.
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Originally published as Hawthorn injury update: Mitch Lewis, Tom Mitchell back in full training, updates on Jarman Impey and Jack Gunston