AFL 2022: Western Bulldogs without ruckman Tim English but captain Marcus Bontempelli returns to face Collingwood

The Western Bulldogs have to beat Collingwood to stay in the race for finals and will be without one “really sick” key player.

Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge says the break would have benefited captain Marcus Bontempelli. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

Western Bulldogs ruckman Tim English has been “floored” by a bout of the flu, which also sidelined captain Marcus Bontempelli last week, and won’t be available for Friday’s must-win clash with Collingwood.

But the Bulldogs will get back key defender Alex Keath and Bontempelli and unleash first-gamer Luke Cleary after being hit hard by injuries in last week’s loss to Port Adelaide, with last year’s No.2 draft pick Sam Darcy also set to play in the VFL after recovering from a long-term foot injury.

Despite losing goalkickers Cody Weightman (shoulder) and Latham Vandermeer (hamstring), former No.1 draft pick Jamarra Ugle-Hagan remains “unlikely” to earn a recall after a VFL bye last week.

He was dropped in round 6, having kicked just four goals in his six games this season.

Coach Luke Beveridge revealed Bontempelli, who missed last week’s loss in Adelaide, had also been “bedridden” with illness as had been other players, including English.

But the coach expected his captain to have benefited from the break having been nursing ankle and hip issues.

“We made that decision for him last week,” Beveridge said.

“It (the week off) will help him on one front with his niggles and the soreness in his ankles and his hip and all the things he was dealing with.

“He’ll be fresher in the body as far as injuries go and we just hope that he’s running on top of the ground and it hasn’t flattened him too much.”

Marcus Bontempelli will return for the Western Bulldogs. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

English missed three weeks with a hamstring injury, but Beveridge said the big man was now “really sick” and would miss at least one more game.

“He‘s recovered from the injury but he’s really sick. I think this flu that’s going around has got a hold of him and it’s knocked him around,” Beveridge said on Wednesday.

“It’s whatever the heavy dose of this flu is, it’s really floored him, so we’ll miss him this week again.”

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— Western Bulldogs (@westernbulldogs) May 11, 2022

Teenager defender Cleary, who was overlooked in his first draft, said he had doubts his debut would ever happen.

“It still hasn’t really sunk in yet,” Cleary said.

“It was a pretty cool moment, all the boys jumped on me.

“For a period, I didn’t quite think I would get to this moment, so to finally get here is pretty awesome.”

Beveridge said it was “really exciting” to see Darcy, the son of club great and board member Luke, finally take to the field,

“Sam hasn’t played footy for a long time now and he’ll only play 60-70 per cent of the game … and hopefully he gets through in flying colours,” Beveridge said.

“He‘s 207cm now, so what that means for us in the future, you celebrate a little bit.”

Sam Darcy, son of ex-Bulldog Luke Darcy, will play VFL this weekend. Picture: Michael Klein

Lachie Hunter, who has missed the past three matches after taking personal leave, is “going OK” but his return is still a way off.

“He’s putting some things in place away from the club and we anticipate probably in a month’s time that he’ll probably re-enter the club and get going again and we’ll see how he’s going,” Beveridge said.

“That’s probably the timeline.”