The young defender, who re-injured his anterior cruciate ligament in last Saturday’s reserves practice match against UWS, requires initial surgery to treat inflammation before a decision is made regarding the reconstruction.
Swans physiotherapist Matt Cameron said the club would be taking a cautious approach with the 22-year-old’s injury, starting with an arthroscope next week.
“He’s re-injured his reconstructed cruciate ligament and he’s going to need to have that reconstructed again,” Cameron told SwansTV in the weekly HCF Injury Update.
“However, he’s had some chronic inflammation that he’s had since last year since his first operation and that’s the thing we need to sort out first and foremost.
“Next week he’s going to have an arthroscope to clean all of that out and following that we’ll be able to make a decision about a reconstruction, what type and when.”
Co-captain Kieren Jack is expected to resume training next week after missing the Swans’ round one match with a stiff back.
Cameron said Jack, who was a late withdrawal from the loss to GWS, has made improvements during the week and is likely to join the main training group next week.
“The night before the match he had a spasm in his back and he woke up and was unable to move properly and well enough to play, which meant he was withdrawn,” he said.
“He has improved since and we’re expecting him to continue improving and to be able to train next week with the team.”
Lewis Roberts-Thomson, who was subbed out of last Saturday’s match with groin soreness, is also expected to be back on the training track next week.
“He’s had some scans which have cleared him of any muscle damage,” Cameron said.
“He just had some groin tightness which was related to perhaps a couple of jarring incidents in the game, which prevented him from really extending out towards the end of the game and that’s why he was substituted.
“We’d also expect him to recover in time to train next week.”
Kurt Tippett should also resume team training next week but is unlikely to be ready for the Swans’ round two clash with Collingwood.
“Kurt has been progressing and is running a lot faster now and he’s due to start skills next week,” Cameron said.
“That probably means that he’s going to be in trouble for the game against Collingwood, but we’ll get him going next week and will have a better idea of when he’s ready to play.”
Cameron also confirmed that Adam Goodes was making progress in his recovery from a knee injury.
“Adam is a little bit behind Kurt, but he’s up and running and is running laps and is running faster,” he said.
“But he’s probably another couple of weeks away from skill training.”
