Hawthorn Hawks trio receive green light to return, young tall remains out for West Coast clash
The Hawthorn Hawks have three players in line to return this weekend as Cooper Stephens, Chad Wingard, Ned Reeves and Max Ramsden are all undergoing post-injury fitness tests. Meanwhile, young defender Will McCabe is expected to be absent for a week longer as he recovers from a back injury. He will miss this weekend’s clash with West Coast.
Speaking on McCabe’s recovery from a back injury, high performance manager of the Hawks Peter Burge said:
"There's sort of two factors with Will. It's a little bit about how much training he's been able to do over the past two weeks, and secondly, being a young player with some of the injury history recently, we just have made the decision that we'd like to get another week of training - but we're aiming for a half of football next week.
"It's also linked to the fact that we've got some other players playing limited game times this weekend with Cooper (playing half a game) and Jack O'Sullivan as well (playing three quarters of a game)."
Hawthorn Hawks injury list according to performance manager
Peter Burge provided updates on each player in the AFL Round 16 Injury Update.
About Ethan Phillips, who suffered a knee injury, Burge said:
"Ethan is coming off some minor surgery to remove a loose body in his knee and since that's gone, his knee has felt fantastic. He trained fully on the Saturday just gone, we had a decent session on Saturday morning. He'll train this week and be available to play the whole game on the weekend."
He also confirmed that Jack O’Sullivan would be available for Round 16. He said:
"He's missed six or seven weeks now, but he's had a great block of training over the past week. So he's going to play three quarters of the game this weekend, which is a great result for Jack."
Burge also reported that Max Ramsden, who had a rolled ankle issue in the Richmond VFL game preceding the bye, had been actively training and is in line to be available for this weekend’s game.
Chad Wingard, whose calf injury has only a 50% chance of leaving him in shape for the Hawthorn Hawks' game this weekend, has been listed as a ‘test' until a final decision is made later in the week.
Cooper Stephens (Achilles) has been listed as a ‘test,' as Burge said:
"We've put him down this week to play a half of footy against Port Melbourne on the weekend. He's had a great block for the past six weeks reconditioning his body and making sure we're on top of this Achilles issue, which has troubled him for quite a while. There's a body of work there now that he's completed that suggests he's ready to resume some match play on the weekend with a good training week this week, so we're looking forward to that on the weekend."