Hawthorn midfield star James Worpel will be sidelined for a month after hurting his ankle in season-opener

Fears of a serious ankle injury to a star Hawk were allayed as a forgotten defender ticked a big box in his push to return.

Hawthorn midfield star James Worpel has avoided surgery after injuring his ankle in last Friday’s season-opening win but will still be sidelined for a month while running defender Changkuoth Jiath passed a key milestone in his bid for an AFL return.

Worpel arrived in Melbourne on Saturday in a moonboot and on crutches after his ankle was trapped underneath him in a tackle by Swans ruckman Brodie Grundy at the SCG.

The 26-year-old was subbed out and sent for scans which confirmed the injury was not as bad as feared.

“He’s been for scans and the scans are relatively promising. He’s got a moderate-grade syndesmosis ankle injury,” High Performance Manager Peter Burge said.

“We’re thinking it’s a three to four-week turnaround. He certainly won’t need any surgery. It’ll be conservative management like we’ve done before. We’ve had Meeky (Lloyd Meek), (Jack) Scrimshaw and Nick Watson last year with the same injury and we were able to turn them around in a pretty reasonable time.

“We’re confident that we’ll be able to do the same with this one.”

Hawthorn ace James Worpel in a moon boot and using a crutch after getting off the flight from Sydney pic.twitter.com/NEmynZ0RsC

— Oliver Caffrey (@ollycaffrey) March 8, 2025

The Hawks took care of the Swans in an impressive 20-point win achieved without a raft of players who made an impact as Sam Mitchell’s team powered in to the finals in 2024.

That included young forward Calsher Dear who had a 12-week scan on his injured back but is unlikely to return any time soon. Same goes for fellow forward Mitch Lewis who is rehabbing a knee injury which included a trip to the US.

“He’s made some great progress,” Burge said.

“Watching him run last week, opening up and the ability to absorb load and prepare himself in his stride has just been fantastic. His strength work and the specific work from his trip to Philadelphia is really paying off.”

But Jiath could be closer to a return after a raft of soft tissue injuries getting key game time in the VFL.

“He played some minutes in the VFL, played 75 minutes of match-play which was almost the whole game in a practice match at VFL level,” Burge said.

“He had great intensity and numbers through his running and he got plenty of the football, I understand. He’s recovered really well and fully trained today so that’s been a great result over the last week. Now, we’ll just keep progressing his involvement in training. He’s available for selection as well.”