Luke Brown has been ruled out of Saturday night’s clash with Collingwood because of a groin injury.
The reliable Brown missed his first AFL game since Round 11, 2013, on the weekend.
Crows General Manager of High Performance Brett Burton said the defender was expected to be fit for Adelaide’s Round 18 trip to Geelong to play the Cats.
“We’ll continue to build Luke up in his rehab program over the next week,” Burton said.
“He’ll be unavailable this week and will, hopefully, play the week after.”
In positive news, luckless backman Sam Shaw has been cleared to resume contact training.
Adelaide has taken an ultra-conservative approach with Shaw following a concussion sustained in the opening rounds of the SANFL season. The left-footer experienced prolonged symptoms, which caused him to feel lethargic when participating in rigorous exercise.
Burton said Shaw was hopeful of returning to the playing field in 2 - 3 weeks.
“Sam has been out for a long period of time with that concussion,” he said.
“He’s recovering well from that. He was assessed last week and can now do contact training.
“We’ll look to build him up over the next few weeks and go through the process of building that (fitness) base and getting used to playing footy again.
“Hopefully, he’ll be available to play in a few weeks.”
The Club is also taking a cautious approach with Troy Menzel, who is recovering from his second concussion of the season. The forward will be assessed in line with concussion protocols and is rated as a ‘Test’ to return in the SANFL this weekend.
Riley Knight has undergone surgery to relieve a lingering nerve irritation in his foot.
The 21-year-old will start running again in the coming days and Burton said the Club would have a clearer picture of Knight’s expected recovery time next week.
“Riley’s had that nerve irritation in the ankle area. We made a decision to have surgery on that,” Burton said.
“It (the surgery) was successful and he’s recovering from that currently. We’ll look to get him up and back running this week, and then we’ll be able to put a more definitive program in place after that.”
Nathan van Berlo (foot) and Luke Lowden (hamstring) are progressing as expected.
Pleasingly, the Crows reported no new injuries at AFL or SANFL level over the weekend. Paul Seedsman (hamstring) and Curtly Hampton (foot) both made successful returns from injury in Adelaide's win over Sturt on Saturday.
Injury list as of Monday, July 11
Troy Menzel (concussion) – Test
Luke Brown (groin) – 1 week
Luke Lowden (hamstring) – 1-2 weeks
Sam Shaw (concussion) – 2-3 weeks
Nathan van Berlo (foot) – 2- 4 weeks
Riley Knight (ankle) – Assess
