Josh Weddle out with back stress concerns, Jordan De Goey concussed at Pies training
The Pies are flying on the field without one of their biggest names. But it seems they’ll be without Jordan De Goey for a bit longer as the Hawks come to terms with a savage injury blow.
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Hawthorn has suffered a serious blow with key playmaker Josh Weddle set to miss “a significant portion” of the back end of the season after scans detected early signs of a stress fracture in his back.
Weddle had soreness arising out of last Saturday’s mauling of North Melbourne in Launceston and went in for scans on his return home.
The scans revealed early stages of lumbar bone stress, with Hawthorn’s head doctor Liam West saying a timeline for Weddle’s return is likely to be determined in the coming weeks.
The Hawks are hopeful the 21-year-old utility can return late in the home and away season and can still play a meaningful role in this year’s finals series.
“We will need to take some time to de-load Josh during this initial phase before we can identify just how long he will be sidelined for,” Dr West said.
“Given how early the injury was discovered, we are hopeful he can return to play before the end of the season.
“While this is obviously disappointing for Josh, our priority right now is taking a careful and cautious approach to ensure Josh makes a safe return but as quickly as possible.
“We will ensure to provide further updates on Josh’s injury as soon as we can.”
Weddle’s versatility has been so important for the Hawks in recent seasons, with his hard running and ball–carrying from half back, with Herald Sun columnist Nathan Buckley saying he was one of the most important players in Sam Mitchell’s structure.
But he can also be used in a variety of roles including on the wing, and even forward, which makes the Hawks a challenging team to match up on.
An accidental head knock early in Collingwood’s training session on Tuesday has thrown Jordan De Goey’s injury comeback off course once again.
De Goey had been due to complete an arduous session in what would have been a significant step forward in his return from an achilles injury, but instead left the track and was placed in the concussion protocols after colliding with Brayden Maynard during a contested drill.
Collingwood coach Craig McRae said it was a “sad” setback for the 29-year-old, who had been steadily rebuilding his body over the last two months.
De Goey has played only 18 games since the Magpies’ premiership triumph after groin and abdominal injuries ruined his 2024 before bone bruising in his knee disrupted his start to this season.
“Jordy got a concussion in the fundamentals (the early part of training) … it’s a bit of a sad one for Jordy, he was just starting to get there,” McRae said.
“He’s obviously going to be in the protocols for the next 10 to 14 days.”
McRae said important defender Brayden Maynard was ready to return against Carlton on Friday, after he was initially ruled out for one to two weeks with a plantar fascia injury but missed the past five weeks.
But in-form veteran Steele Sidebottom was in significant doubt for the Blues clash due to illness, while Lachie Schultz (hamstring) was also unwell, which had delayed his recovery.
“Steele is a bit ill … he’s got a ‘man flu’ at the moment and he’s not well, so I think he’s unlikely to play,” McRae said after Sidebottom missed training.
“Lachie (Schultz) was tracking to potentially be available this week, but he’s been sick as well, he’s got a bit of viral stuff going on.
“He couldn’t quite get there, so hopefully he’ll be back later in the week to set him up for the next one.”
Small forward Bobby Hill had returned to the club but was a “day-to-day” prospect in the lead up to the game, according to McRae.
The Norm Smith medallist was a late withdrawal from Saturday night’s win over West Coast for personal reasons.
“It was great to see Bobby back today … we haven’t seen him around for a few days, and he’s trained really well. We’re excited to have him back,” McRae said.
“He’s a day-to-day thing at the moment … we’re not sure if he’ll be available this week, but it’s really great to see him back in the club.”
With the chance of slippery conditions on Friday night, McRae said the Blues clash could be a game that “suits” Tom Mitchell, who has been pushing for a return after playing seven consecutive games in the VFL.
DONS DIVING DEEP INTO INJURY CRISIS AS THEY SWEAT ON BIG NAMES
- Jon Ralph
Essendon is still hopeful of bringing back as many as five senior players against Gold Coast including Jordan Ridley and Zach Reid, despite fresh injuries to Kyle Langford (quad) and Darcy Parish (calf).
The Dons are hopeful that Mason Redman has avoided another soft tissue injury despite suffering some hamstring soreness at Saturday’s training session on the bye weekend.
He could still be available for this weekend’s clash – or might miss only another week after recovering from a separate calf concern.
But Langford has suffered a fresh quad injury and Parish is set to miss with another calf issue as the Dons prepare to release their injury report on Tuesday.
Sam Durham (suspension) and Todd Goldstein (managed) are set to return, while the club will have to assess Reid (hamstring) and Ridley (hamstring) in the build-up to Saturday afternoon’s fixture.
Essendon is confident both are ready to return, with Reid’s round 11 injury against Richmond on the minor scale, but has been treated cautiously given his soft tissue history.
Essendon CEO Craig Vozzo and football boss Dan McPherson are leaving no stone unturned to investigate the club’s injury crisis that has seen too many stars suffer soft-tissue concerns.
The club did renovate its MCG-sized training field over summer and has plans to do something similar to its second training field this off-season.
But it believes the recurrent soft-tissue concerns have nothing to do with the training field, which had grass replaced under a scheduled maintenance program.
The club will dig into its training loads and whether players have been over or under-trained across the pre-season.
Essendon was adamant its players ramp up their off-season program to ensure they returned in peak fitness so that is another avenue of inquiry.
The sequencing of games with Thursday night games and multiple five-day breaks could also be a factor that has affected players.
So Essendon’s injury investigation will forensically dig into those areas before making any concrete conclusions about the future of the club’s high performance staff.
The club is keen to eliminate any own goals and make improvements in its conditioning and medical program before making changes at year’s end.
But Essendon is also aware that it now has a list, which has a handful of players prone to injury, making their management particularly challenging.
Reid has huge potential but after so many concerns across all areas of his body is always going to be prone to breaking down.
Struggling Blues set for latest blow ahead of Pies blockbuster
– Ed Bourke
A lingering groin issue has left Carlton defender Jack Silvagni in serious doubt as the struggling Blues prepare to meet Collingwood on Friday.
Silvagni was confined to run-throughs on the far wing at Ikon Park alongside injured forward Harry McKay as the Blues held an open training session on Monday morning.
He spoke at length to the Blues’ trainers before moving inside about 30 minutes into the session.
Fellow defender Jacob Weitering moved well in a promising session after battling an ankle injury in the Blues’ heavy loss to Port Adelaide, but losing Silvagni would force another reshuffle of the club’s key position stocks ahead of the prime time clash with their arch rivals.
About 40 Carlton supporters watched on in the stands as the under-pressure side was put through its paces.
There was minimal security presence and the session passed without controversy except for one rowdy onlooker standing outside the gates.
“Bit of voice, lads! Bit of voice, come on. Library,” he yelled out.
Blues skipper Patrick Cripps trained fully after dealing with illness over the past week, as did sore ruckman Tom De Koning.
Embattled coach Michael Voss was not spotted, but rarely ventures on to the track during the first session of the week.
Originally published as Josh Weddle out with back stress concerns, Jordan De Goey concussed at Pies training
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