After being subbed out of the Western Bulldogs victory against the Suns on the weekend, the Club is hopeful Koby Stevens could return for Saturday’s round 16 match with Geelong this weekend.
Stevens was taken to hospital in Cairns for scans but has since been cleared of any serious damage and could play against the Cats on Saturday said Bulldogs General Manager of Football Graham Lowe.
“Koby obviously had a significant collision. He had a little bit of tightness of breath and obviously some soreness.
“We wanted to make sure that he was ok so we managed him conservatively, he was taken off and we got X-rays and the X-rays have cleared him of any other concerns.
“He’s got some bruising to his lungs but certainly responded well, he travelled back with the team and we’re going to put him through the appropriate steps this week with a view to making him available for selection.”
Defender Fletcher Roberts was the other concern out of the round 15 match, and will miss the next two weeks after injuring his ankle.
“Not such good news for Fletcher. He’s got some ligament damage to that ankle so that’s going to take a couple of weeks to settle down so he won’t be available for selection this week.”
Jordan Roughead and Joel Hamling also look likely to return against the Cats after both missing the Suns match with back injuries.
“Jordan actually came in well, we couldn’t get him right to travel up to Cairns and be involved in the game but he’s certainly come in well at the start of this week.
“We’ll be looking for him to train fully on the back end of the week with a view to being available for selection.
“Joel couldn’t get up for the game either after that significant fall from quite a height on to his back so we’ve again managed him in the appropriate way.
“He didn’t travel with us but he’ll certainly be putting himself in a position through the right training this week to make himself available for selection.”
Matt Fuller missed Footscray’s match on the weekend after soreness in the same quad that had troubled him in the first half of the season.
“Matty’s got some minor quad tightness from the same side as his surgery so we’re just managing him conservatively at this stage and just working with his loading to make sure that we get him absolutely right moving forward to the back end of the season.”
In positive news, Zaine Cordy returned from his finger injury that had sidelined him and got through the VFL match unscathed.
“Zaine’s back and it’s good to see him back out there.
“He’s had a couple of tough ones to deal with but he got through the game well so really pleasing to have him back out there.”
Toby McLean came through surgery on his shoulder and is set to commence his rehab shortly.
“Toby had successful surgery on his AC joint. We’re just making sure we get that post-surgery trauma to settle down and once we’ve got that obviously we’ll start building his program back up but certainly a successful operation.”
