It will be a wait and see for a number of Western Bulldog stars ahead of a trip to Ballarat to face Gold Coast on Saturday.
Aaron Naughton was hampered by a knee injury on Friday night and will need to get through a main training session before being deemed available.
“Aaron had an incident where he over flexed and jammed his knee joint,” Head of Sports Medicine, Chris Bell said.
“He was able to get through the game but has some expected soreness into this week.”
“We are working around the clock to improve his symptoms and will make a decision on his availability after main training on Wednesday.”
Tim English continues to recover from a bout of the flu and will integrate back into training in coming days.
“Tim didn’t play on the weekend because he has had a bad dose of the flu,” Bell said.
“He became significantly unwell and had to spend a few days in hospital last week.”
“As expected, he is still very low in energy, which will take time to return to full levels.”
“He is now back at the club and easing himself back into some training.”
“We will be conservative in his re-load and confirm his return to play once he’s healthy and back to training with intensity.”
In positive news for the side, Jason Johannisen is on track to return in some form this weekend.
“Jason’s recovery from his calf injury has been slower than we initially hoped for,” Bell said.
“He had some persistent tightness that we needed to wait until it normalised.”
“We’ve focused on improving his calf durability, and since he has missed a lot of footy, we’ve needed to expose him to a solid month of conditioning and football training.”
“He has now ticked every box that we have asked, and if he gets through training this week – he will be putting his hand up for selection. “
Injury List
Jason Johannisen (Calf): test
Aaron Naughton (Knee): test
Tim O’Brien (Calf): test
Stefan Martin (General soreness): test
Tim English (Illness): 1-2 weeks
Cody Weightman (Collarbone): 1-2
weeks
Riley Garcia (Knee): 1-2 weeks
Mitch Wallis (Foot): 1-2 weeks
Josh Bruce (Knee): 4-5 weeks
Toby McLean (Knee): 4-5 weeks
Laitham Vandermeer (Hamstring); 6-7 weeks
Mitch Hannan (Concussion): indefinite
Lachie Hunter (Personal): indefinite
