Geelong GM of Football Simon Lloyd said that the club expects defender Jake Kolodjashnij to play this weekend against the Gold Coast.
The reliable defender has missed the opening two rounds of the season after being concussed during a pre-season game against Brisbane in early March, but Lloyd said he could line up against the Suns on Sunday if ticked off by the medical staff.
“Jake's been introduced to contact work, he's heavily involved in running and football drills and he's tracking as expected,” Lloyd told geelongcats.com.au. “Obviously when we get the final tick off from our medical team he'll be introduced, but we expect him to play this week.”
Lloyd said that premiership players Mitch Duncan and Tom Stewart are also tracking well and will be available for selection soon.
“In regard to Mitch Duncan, Mitch is doing a huge amount of speed work, and he's now in full training, so expect Mitch to be very close, he is not far away at all, which is exciting for all Cats fans,” he said.
“As for Tommy Stewart, if anything we're having to pull the reins back on him, he's tracking exactly as expected.
"He's now completed a number of running sessions and is moving freely so we expect, as was first pointed out when he had the injury that, he would be several weeks so he's not far away at all.”
There’s also encouraging news on developing ruckman Toby Conway.
“Toby some time ago had a navicular stress reaction in his foot,” he said. “He has done a huge amount of stair work to strengthen his foot and he's now two weeks running so in the short term he'll start to be introduced to training loads with footballs. Toby's a very important part of our future and it's going to be great to see him back out on the training track”.
Lloyd also provided updates on Jack Henry and Sam Menegola, both of whom underwent surgery over the last month. .
“Jack had surgery four weeks ago and Sam three weeks ago. Both are tracking really well; they've just been introduced to a reconditioning program so that's been at high intensity and they're both in a great frame of mind and hopefully those weeks tick by quickly for both of them because they're highly valuable players for both of us.”
