Key forward/ruck Elliott Himmelberg will miss this week’s clash with West Coast after undergoing surgery on a fractured cheekbone.
“Elliott has a depressed fracture of his cheekbone from a collision in a ruck contest on the weekend,” High Performance Manager Darren Burgess said.
“He’s had surgery and will miss at least a week. Hopefully he will still be able to train but we’ll just keep him out of contact for a little while and trust the medical and surgeon’s advice on that.”
Midfielder/forward Izak Rankine is facing three weeks on the sidelines as he recovers from a hamstring injury.
Rankine has been in the pool and will resume running in coming days after suffering the injury in Saturday’s loss to Collingwood at the MCG.
“Unfortunately Izak strained his hamstring in that incident in the last minute of the game, it looks a pretty standard hamstring in terms of the length of time he’ll be out – about three weeks,” Burgess said.
“It’s disappointing for him, he’s been playing great footy and is an important member of the team, but we’ll just have to cover him for the next few weeks and bring him back.
“He’s been in the pool already and will start running in the next couple of days and begin that rehab process.”
There is positive news for midfielder/forward Luke Pedlar who has one final box to tick at Thursday’s main training session before being cleared to return from a shoulder injury this weekend.
Pedlar has not played since he dislocated his shoulder against North Melbourne in Round Seven.
“Luke has got through all the contact we needed him to, so assuming he gets through training on Thursday which we are anticipating, he will play this weekend,” Burgess said.
“He has put a lot of work in along with our staff with his strength around his shoulder, he’s back to pre-injury levels and we’re anticipating him coming in and having an impact.”
INJURY UPDATE:
(As of Tuesday, May 21):
Luke Pedlar (shoulder) test
Elliott Himmelberg (cheekbone) TBC
Nick Murray (knee) 1-2 weeks
Izak Rankine (hamstring) 3 weeks
Riley Thilthorpe (knee) 5-7 weeks
Josh Worrell (arm) 8-12 weeks
Wayne Milera (knee) season
Patrick Parnell (shoulder) season
