Collingwood won’t make changes to its fitness department despite hamstring woes

After a terrible run with injuries last season, Collingwood will head into the 2020 season in decent shape despite Adam Treloar’s hamstring setback continuing the club’s soft-tissue concerns.

Adam Treloar is an unlikely starter for Round 1 after injuring his hamstring. Picture: AAP

Collingwood has backed its strength and conditioning department to keep its stars on the field this year, despite a history of hamstring problems over the past few seasons.

Collingwood suffered the equal third-most games lost through injury last year (230), behind only Melbourne (254) and St Kilda (248).

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And in the latest setback, gun midfielder Adam Treloar went down on Sunday with a hamstring strain and will miss Round 1, following Jordan De Goey, Darcy Moore, Ben Reid and Jamie Elliott’s hamstring troubles last year.

The quartet all missed at least one month with a hamstring injury, while emerging defender Will Kelly’s year ended early with a serious hamstring tendon injury in May, prompting calls for a review of their injury programs.

But the club has confidently retained its strength and conditioning staff and medical team for 2020, after a standard review of the off-field operations at the end of last year.

Strength and conditioning manager Kevin White will continue to run the department after replacing Bill Davoren at the end of 2017.

Each of Collingwood’s hamstring issues were deemed to be individual issues, rather than something that was related to any fault of the fitness program.

Adam Treloar injured his hamstring late in the Marsh Series match against Richmond last Sunday. Picture: Michael Klein

De Goey headed to Germany in September to see world-renowned soft tissue specialist Dr Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt, after suffering a recurrence of his hamstring problem in the qualifying final win over Geelong last year.

Before the Treloar blow on Sunday, Collingwood football manager Geoff Walsh said Collingwood had enjoyed one of its most productive and healthy pre-seasons in years on the back of last year’s soft tissue woes.

It means the Pies will head into the season-opener against Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium in decent shape.

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Only defender Tom Langdon (knee), speedster Travis Varcoe (shoulder), Levi Greenwood (knee) and Treloar will be missing from their best 22 selection mix for the Round 1 blockbuster.

Langdon is out indefinitely with continued knee problems after undergoing surgery on his knee late last year.

Retirement has been flagged as a possible option for Langdon who hasn’t played since Round 9 last year.