INJURED Adelaide captain Nathan van Berlo will spend his time on the sidelines in the club's coaching box, helping to fill strategy and innovation coach Dean Bailey's indefinitely vacated position.
Bailey is receiving ongoing treatment after being diagnosed with cancer last November.
The club said it would give Bailey all the time he needed to beat the illness and hasn't nominated a return date for the former Melbourne coach.
Van Berlo will miss at least six months with a ruptured Achilles tendon, during which time Patrick Dangerfield and Rory Sloane will act as on-field co-captains.
Coach Brenton Sanderson said that during his rehabilitation van Berlo would prove a massive asset for the coaching group.
"Nathan's going to quickly become an integral part of our coaching group particularly while we don't have Dean Bailey with us," Sanderson said.
"It's the perfect fit for us that Nathan can come in, he's just so well schooled with our game plan and how we play, he's going to be another valuable set of eyes on match day.
"We've already got him busy conducting training sessions and spending a lot of time, as he already does, with our younger group."
The 27-year-old skipper was reappointed to the position on Friday and received unanimous backing from Sanderson, Sloane and Dangerfield despite his inability to play until August at the earliest.
Van Berlo is the latest AFL player to suffer a ruptured Achillles, following Richmond's Nathan Foley, Hawthorn's Jarryd Roughead and North Melbourne's Andrew Swallow in recent seasons.
He spoke to Swallow last week and said he would continue to seek the Kangaroo captain's advice on his return from the significant injury.
"I had a good chat with Andrew last week and he was really good to pass on a few wise words from his experience and I told him I'll keep in touch with him just to pick his brain," van Berlo said.
"I spoke to him about early stages in your rehab it was basically about just giving you the best chance to recover early days, and to be patient with it.
"We haven't had a serious Achilles injury here at the footy club. I know we've got some great expertise but it also helps to have someone to bounce ideas off who's been through a similar situation."
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