Geelong could welcome back some key players for the Round 11 clash with Greater Western Sydney this weekend according to Cats GM of Football Simon Lloyd.

Ollie Henry, Sam De Koning and Gary Rohan will still need to be medically cleared but Lloyd was optimistic about their prospects.

“Ollie Henry had the testicular rupture a couple of weeks ago and we had Sam De Koning with the facial fracture and Gary Rohan also with a minor hamstring but all three are in full training as we speak,” he said. 

“They still have a number of things they need to tick off before they are medically cleared but they will be discussed for selection this week.” 

The positive outlook for those three key players comes after it was announced earlier today that Max Holmes had gone in for surgery to repair a meniscus tear.

“Max had been in great form and was really building his game in the early part of the season, so he'll spend a couple of weeks where he won’t do much and then it'll really ramp up after that,” he told geelongcats.com.au

“But Max should be feeling pretty positive because he's put in a really good body of games in the early part of the season, and we look forward to what the second half of the season looks like.”

Lloyd said there’s a group of players that are in contention to play on either side of the bye. 

“Jack Bowes, Pat Dangerfield and Mitch Duncan all have had minor soft tissue injuries and Shannon Neale has had a ankle injury as well, so those four players are increasing their running loads, they're doing a lot more kicking and they've all got individual programs that they're working through but they're all very close.”

He also provided an update on Rhys Stanley and Cam Guthrie as well as youngsters Jhye Clark and Flynn Kroeger. 

“Rhys Stanley suffered a facial fracture in the Gather Round,” he said. 

“The recovery on that has been a lot slower than we first hoped but Rhys's long-term health is what's most important and we'll give him all the time that he needs." 

“Cam Guthrie has had issues with his big toe that's taking a little while to settle and he'll increase his running leads over the coming weeks.” 

“Jhye Clark had a navicular stress reaction and has had some scans recently and those scans are positive. Pretty soon he'll start to weight bare and again, particularly with the young players we need to think long term so we'll be more conservative. 

“And Flynn had an arthroscope on his hip at the beginning of the year and it's positive. He's starting to do some running on the Alt-G so that's non weight baring, and again whilst it's slower, Flynn's attitude and his professionalism has been outstanding.”

Finally, Lloyd provided some positive news on both Sam Menegola and Toby Conway although both remain longer term prospects.

 “Again, we need the longer term vision for both of those players but Sam has a multitude of running sessions under his belt now and he's moving well as it currently stands, but again he'll need to build on that over the coming period of time," he explained.  

“In regards to Toby Conway, he's doing a huge amount of work," Lloyd said.  

I suppose we're looking for games of football to be played with Toby, but we also value seeing Toby doing a huge amount of work with Brad Ottens on the training track and Josh Jenkins, and he's doing a lot of ruck work against Jonathon Ceglar and Mark Blicavs.

“So he's working on his craft, his positioning, and that for us at this stage of his career is just as important as playing games.”