Marc Murphy faces crucial fitness test in race to be ready for Round 1

MARC Murphy faces a crucial match simulation session to prove his fitness for the season-opener against Richmond. See which players are allowed to play this weekend

AFL Captains Shoot

FRIDAY is D-Day for Marc Murphy, with the Carlton captain facing a crucial match simulation session to prove his fitness for Thursday’s season-opener against Richmond.

Murphy, who had a shoulder reconstruction in September and follow-up surgery in December, will put the left joint through its biggest test yet at Ikon Park.

The midfielder said he was likely to face the Tigers at the MCG, but admitted he had “a bit of work to do” having only resumed contact training a fortnight ago.

“We’ve got match simulation with some training coming up ... to see how it goes. I’ve still got a few sessions to get through,” Murphy said.

“I’m likely. There’s still a few boxes that need to be ticked so that’s where we sit at the moment.”

Murphy dislocated the shoulder in last year’s Round 21 meeting with Melbourne, but experienced discomfort at training in December and missed the Blues’ Gold Coast training camp.

“Having an injury is never ideal and having to go in a couple of times to make sure it’s all right is never ideal,” he said.

“But coming out of the one in December that I did to clean it up a little bit, I’m really confident that’s got the job done.

Marc Murphy holds the premiership cup at the Captains’ Day. Picture: George Salpigtidis

“It’s better late than never, I suppose, to get it right. But it’s on track in regards to where we want it to be and where we thought it was going to be in December.

“I’ve just been getting incrementally more contact and more tackling into (my shoulder). So I’ve been building that up for the last few weeks to a really good point where I can really test it out now.”

Murphy, 28, said he’d missed only one week of running despite the two operations and was confident his conditioning was at the required level.

FULL LIST OF PLAYERS GIVEN PERMISSION TO PLAY THIS WEEKEND

FREMANTLE: Harley Bennell, Connor Blakely, Zac Clarke, Sam Collins, Hayden Crozier, Matt DeBoer, Brady Grey, Jack Hannath, Ethan Hughes, Ed Langdon, Alex Pearce, Clancee Pearce, Alex Silvagni, Darcy Tucker, Lachie Weller

GEELONG: Daniel Menzel, Joel Selwood

GOLD COAST: Keegan Brooksby, Ryan Davis, Brayden Fiorini, Jarrad Grant, Jesse Joyce, Tom Keough, Cameron Leorsch, Jack Leslie, Darcy Macpherson, Henry Schade, Josh Schoenfeld, Danny Stanley, Seb Tape, Mackenzie Willis

MELBOURNE: Angus Brayshaw, Lynden Dunn, Liam Hulett, Max King, Mitch King, Heritier Lumumba, Oscar McDonald, Viv Michie, Alex Neal-Bullen, Joel Smith, Billy Stretch, Dean Terlich, Aaron vandenBerg, Sam Weideman, Mitch White

NORTH MELBOURNE: Aaron Black, Ryan Clarke, Majak Daw, Trent Dumont, Sam Durdin, William Fordham, Mitchell Hibberd, Ben Jacobs, Brad McKenzie, Declan Mountford, Aaron Mullett, Robin Nahas, Braydon Preuss, Farren Ray, Joel Tippett, Kayne Turner, Corey Wagner, Mason Wood

RICHMOND: Dan Butler, Jason Castagna, Todd Elton, Ben Griffiths, Taylor Hunt, Adam Marcon, Oleg Markov, Liam McBean, Callum Moore, Jayden Short, Ivan Soldo, Ty Vickery

SYDNEY: George Hewett, Zak Jones, Toby Nankervis, Nic Newman, James Rose

WEST COAST: Corey Adamson, Matt Allen, Tom Barass, Paddy Brophy, Tom Cole, Brant Colledge, Jonathon Giles, Mark Hutchings, Mal Karpany, Tom Lamb, Kane Lucas, Fraser McInnes, Patrick McGinnity, Luke Partington, Jack Redden, Dom Sheed, Jordan Snadden

WESTERN BULLDOGS: Joel Hamling

Originally published as Marc Murphy faces crucial fitness test in race to be ready for Round 1