Further delay to Charlie Dixon’s return as part of Port Adelaide’s new attacking game plan

Port Adelaide has a new attacking game plan for AFL season 2019. But the return date for a major part of this playbook, key forward Charlie Dixon, has been further delayed by surgery.

Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley would have liked to have seen stronger progress in key forward Charlie Dixon’s return from a serious right-leg injury this year. Dixon’s comeback to AFL action remains without a clear timeline. Picture: Sarah Reed.

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Key forward Charlie Dixon’s return to the Port Adelaide attack is under a greater cloud of doubt after more surgery to his right ankle.

A day after Power coach Ken Hinkley conceded Dixon was “struggling” in his training, a surgeon ordered arthroscopic surgery to clean out Dixon’s ankle on Tuesday.

Port Adelaide says the procedure has been completed successfully and Dixon is “recovering well”.

But this setback makes a return date to AFL action for Dixon more difficult to predict. The giant forward who broke his right leg and damaged ligaments in the right ankle late last season.

Hinkley on Monday was upfront about Dixon’s troubled progress in recovery saying: “He is struggling.”

Hinkley will put no timeline on Dixon’s return to play a major part in the new Power gameplan that has been designed to deliver more on the scoreboard after Port Adelaide averaged just 81 points last season (down 17 on the previous year).

“He is struggling,” Hinkley told The Advertiser of 200cm Dixon’s build-up for Season 2019.

Charlie Dixon takes a breather after returning to running from a broken leg last month. Picture: Sarah Reed

Dixon’s 2018 campaign ended with a broken right leg — and badly hyper-extended right ankle — in an awkward landing from a marking contest with West Coast defender Tom Barrass in the final term at Adelaide Oval on August 11.

Medical experts say the recovery time for such injuries is eight months at best, 10 months at worst. Until Christmas, Dixon appeared on track for recovering closer to the eight-month forecast rather than 10.

Today, Hinkley cannot narrow the timeline on his power forward’s return to AFL action.

“We would have liked Charlie to have been a little bit further advanced than he is,” Hinkley said of Dixon, the Power’s leading goalkicker (49 goals) in 2017.

“But we always thought it would be the early part of the year when we would get him back playing. We still think that is a real possibility.

“But we would like to see some more positive steps.”

So far, Dixon has resumed running — with each day leading to a different response from his legs that are carrying less weight (105kg) from his imposing frame.

“We are seven months since he broke his leg and took a significant injury out of that West Coast game,” Hinkley said. “It was more than just a broken leg once the ankle is factored in.

“It was going really well up to Christmas. But he had not run.

“And since the running has started, it has been good today, not so good tomorrow, good again the day after.

“Charlie is running. But he is not training the way we would like to have him training now.

“It is hard to get an accurate timeline on his return. It could be as early as a week (to that full training stage). It could be as far out as four weeks.

“I can’t get a crystal ball read on that one. It is very difficult. It is a significant injury — broken leg and ankle at the same time. It will take a long time. And he is a big person to carry on those legs.

Port Adelaide’s Charlie Dixon breaks his leg last year. Picture: Hannah Rose Photography / Instagram

Port Adelaide's Charlie Dixon after surgery. Picture: Instagram

“The good thing about Charlie is he is really fit. He is as light as he has ever been (105kg). He will not take long (to play) when he gets comfort in his leg and he feels he can do the things he needs to do.

“(Setting a) time frame (for Dixon’s return to the AFL) is really hard with that injury. You can’t say he should be another week or he should be another two weeks. He could be another four or five.

“We have to sit back and be patient. And just take each session as it comes and then progress as quickly as we can.”

The good news for Port Adelaide is the high scoring — a 106-point average — Hinkley’s team managed in the two-game pre-season campaign without Dixon.

Hinkley discusses the rationale behind his new playbook in an exclusive one-one-one interview on Friday.