Lin Jong has today undergone surgery on a broken collarbone and is expected to miss at least the next four weeks of football, while Bailey Dale will miss the rest of the season with a foot injury, the Western Bulldogs have confirmed.
Jong was a late inclusion Friday night’s win over Geelong but came down hard in a tackle in the early stages of the first quarter of Friday night’s match, taking no further part in the action.
The Bulldogs’ Medical Services Manager Chris Bell says Jong could return for the latter part of the season.
“Unfortunately Jongy landed on his shoulder in the first quarter of the game on the weekend, (and) this has caused the collarbone to break,” Bell said.
“Lin's had surgery this afternoon to stabilize the fracture and we expect him to miss the next four to six weeks.”
In a further blow for the Dogs, Bailey Dale will miss the remainder of the season after scans today confirmed the 21-year-old will need surgery on his foot.
“We've been really conservative in our management of Bailey Dale following his stress injury to the navicular bone in his foot,” Bell told westernbulldogs.com.au on Monday.
“We've monitored him really closely, but scans have confirmed that he's not responding well and we are going to have to go down the surgical path.
“We're going to put a screw into his navicular bone which is going to rule him out for the rest of the season.”
Matthew Suckling is also facing extended time on the sidelines after an achilles complaint saw him withdrawn from Friday night’s game minutes before the bounce.
“Although Matt ticked all of our boxes last week in the return from his achilles injury, I'm afraid that pre-game he had a flare up of his symptoms and we were required to withdraw him from the game.
“We're going to be really cautious with our approach with Suckers and make sure we get some continuity in his training and look for him to return in the next three to four weeks.”
In more positive news, Caleb Daniel will likely be available to play this weekend after recovering from reported knee soreness last week.
“We didn't want to take any risk that the knee soreness would linger so we rested him on the weekend,” Bell said. “He's come in well today and we fully expect him to train this week and be available.”
Ruckman Tim English will also return to full training this week as he continues his recovery from a foot injury that has sidelined since the Club’s round 7 win over the Gold Coast.
For the full injury list and recovery timeline click here.
