Western Bulldogs midfielder Tom Liberatore has undergone surgery to his ankle, following the Club’s match against Geelong on Friday night.
Liberatore sustained a syndesmosis injury to his left ankle in a tackling contest in the second quarter of the match.
Subsequent scans revealed ligament damage, with surgery required to stabilise Liberatore's ankle.
“He’s come through [the surgery] really well so our plan is to get him up and running from a rehab perspective as quick as possible," Western Bulldogs General Manager Football, Graham Lowe said on Monday.
“We need to manage it the right way but we’re optimistic that Tom can play a key part for us towards the end of the season.”
Fellow midfielder Jackson Macrae sustained an upper hamstring injury during the match but Lowe is optimistic about the timeline of Macrae’s recovery.
“It has got some tendon involvement which means it will take that bit longer but Jack will commence rehab in the coming days and we’re optimistic he’ll have a role to play toward the end of the season.”
In further encouraging news, the Dogs could welcome back Dale Morris, Matthew Boyd and Matthew Suckling for Saturday night’s clash with North Melbourne.
Defender Morris has progressed well through the weekends’ training, while Boyd and Suckling will also be given an opportunity to prove their fitness after missing Friday night’s match with their respective achilles concerns.
“They’ve both come in today and they’ve both trained over the weekend, so we’ll assess them through this week of training with a view to being available for selection this weekend," Lowe said.
The news isn’t as good for first-year defender Kieran Collins who injured his shoulder playing for Footscray at the weekend.
Collins will go in for scans on Monday to assess the injury.
Meanwhile Bailey Williams has continued to experience low level symptoms that have failed to respond to the conservative management plan for his knee injury.
“We’ve decided that he will require and arthroscopic investigation which he’ll have today to assist in his ongoing symptoms,” Lowe told BulldogsTV.
“We’re hoping that his return to play timeline will be quite short and he is planning to resume running next week.”
Dogs optimistic on Libba and Macrae, defensive trio chance to return
The latest medical room update on Tom Liberatore and Jack Macrae after the weekend.