RETURNING duo Tom Stewart and Mitch Duncan are set to play against the Dockers on Monday night.
Cats coach Chris Scott confirmed the two senior stars would return after coming close against the Magpies.
“They’ll be in it and they’ll play too. There’s no doubt about those two, they were close last week,” Scott says.
“With a decent break between the last game and this one we always expected them to come up for this one and they’ve trained well enough already this week for us to be convinced they’ll play.”
Small forward Luke Dahlhaus is set for a stint on the sidelines with a foot injury.
“We’ve had a little bit more bad news, Luke Dahlhaus is going to miss a period of weeks with a foot issue,” Scott says.
“It’s medium term, it’d not a matter of him being back in a couple of weeks, he’ll be a little bit longer than that.
“The onset was quite slow and it took us all a little bit by surprise.”
Tom Atkins is edging closer to full fitness, with the Cats taking a conservative approach to his recovery from a rib injury given the condensed fixture ahead.
“The specific issue right at the moment and there have been several, is more related to a rib cartilage,” Scott says.
“It’s a common rugby league and rugby union injury and as those guys know they can linger for quite a long time which this one has, so it wasn’t completely unexpected.
“We’ve decided with the fixture coming up that we’re not going to play him until he’s absolutely ready.
“Knowing Tom he would have played through it given the choice and we’re just not prepared to let him do that.”
Both Atkins and ruckman Rhys Stanley could be in line to return against West Coast, just five days after the Dockers clash.
“They’re still a little way off. We’re hoping that those two might be close to being available the following week (against the Eagles),” Scott says.
“It is a short turnaround of five days into the West Coast game, but they should be closer.”
Irish Cat Stefan Okunbor is continuing to ‘heal like the terminator’ and could be in line to play in the Cats’ Reserves scratch match against the Dockers on Sunday.
“He’s certainly trained well enough to play. We haven’t locked down who’s available yet and who isn’t,” Scott says.
“My observation of him over a long time at training is that he’s looked ready to me but he’s had a ruptured achilles so it was a serious injury.
“It’s been a remarkable recovery and the way he’s trained has been pretty impressive.”
Meanwhile, former Crow Josh Jenkins is making progress in his return from a back injury.
“Josh Jenkins is starting to get on the radar as well,” Scott says.
“We’ve got some match practice against Fremantle on Sunday this week, he won’t quite get up for that, but we think after that he’ll be available to play in whatever form that match practice takes.”
