Brisbane Lions veteran Simon Black in doubt for Q-clash

BRISBANE veteran Simon Black has been placed on light duties as the Lions try to nurse him through to Saturday's derby with the Suns.

Simon Black

BRISBANE veteran Simon Black has been placed on light duties as the Lions attempt to nurse him through to Saturday's derby with the Suns at Metricon Stadium.

Black starred for Brisbane in Saturday night's loss to St Kilda but was on one leg by the final siren and remains in doubt for this weekend.

Lions coach Michael Voss said Black's struggles were not related to the existing knee injury that ruled him out of the previous week's loss to Sydney and is likely to require off-season surgery but admitted his star midfielder was a week-to-week proposition and would be for the rest of the year.

"He just got a bump on the leg that was a pretty bad one,'' he said.

"It had nothing to do with his pre-existing injury.

"But he will always be a bit week-to-week and we have to see how he progresses during the week.

"We are hoping he will be OK and we are planning for him to be OK but he has pulled up a little sore.

"We'll have to wait and see how he goes before there is any decision on whether he plays.''

Voss said the Brownlow medalist had reached the stage of his career where he was not expected to take part in all the Lions' weekly training sessions but conceded pulling him out of sessions was a challenge for the coaches.

"We've modified his training program,'' he said.

"Once you are 33 years of age and you've had 4000 training sessions every now and then you can bank a few.

"Blackie wants to be there for every single training session.

"But now he has to rely on those and trust the fact his body will be OK and just get himself up for the weekend because that’s where we need him most.''