Emerging forward Toby Murray will be sidelined for an extended period after suffering a serious ankle injury in the SANFL on the weekend.
Murray fractured his fibula and damaged his syndesmosis in Saturday’s win over North Adelaide and will have surgery this week.
“The ankle is too swollen to operate until later this week but he will have surgery which will render him unavailable until the later parts of the season,” High Performance Manager Darren Burgess said.
“We’re not too sure on the timeframe yet but we are aiming to get him back playing in the later part of the AFL season.
“It’s a real blow, he’s improved as much as any player on our list since we drafted him, and he had an unbelievable pre-season and was putting selection pressure on the forwards in the AFL.
“But he’s determined to get back and play a meaningful role in the back half of the season.”
His brother Nick is making good progress in his return from a minor knee injury and is on track to play next weekend.
“Nick has trained well this week and will be involved in full training next week, and we’re anticipating if he gets through that he will be available for the GWS game in Round 6,” Burgess said.
“He is progressing really well and doing everything we’re asking so at this stage there’s no reason he won’t be available next week.”
Izak Rankine will have a test on his corked calf he sustained against Gold Coast ahead of Thursday night’s clash with Geelong.
Rankine was able to finish the game and while scans have cleared him of any damage he has been managing some soreness in the early part of the week.
Josh Rachele is also set to resume running as he recovers from three fractured ribs.
“Rash starts running later this week, he’s done a lot of work on the bike and is progressing well,” Burgess said.
“Obviously it’s a pretty painful injury so we have to respect that, but he will run on Friday this week and progress him from there.”
Midfielder Matt Crouch is set to return this week after being managed and missing Saturday’s loss to Gold Coast.
“Matty had some hip soreness which he experiences from time to time so we thought it was best to give him the week off, he will be available this week, it’s settled down nicely and we look forward to him playing a role on Thursday night.”
Injury Update
(As of Tuesday, April 8)
Toby Murray (ankle) TBC
Nick Murray (knee) 1-2 weeks
Josh Rachele (ribs) 3-5 weeks
Izak Rankine (calf) test
