Essendon sweating on fitness of key names after fresh weekend injuries

Essendon is leaving no stone unturned in investigating the injury crisis that added more casualties over the bye weekend. But relief might still be on its way in the form of a few big names.

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 is confident Mason Redman has avoided another soft tissue injury. Picture: Michael Klein

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.

Zach Reid after his injury in round 11. Picture: James Wiltshire/AFL Photos

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.

Silvagni picked up the injury in Carlton’s loss to Sydney in May. Picture: Darrian Traynor/AFL Photos/via Getty Images

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.