West Coast forward Oscar Allen is targeting a round five return from his foot injury for the Eagles’ blockbuster Friday night clash against Sydney at Optus Stadium.
Allen is out of his moon boot and on the comeback trail from a stress-related issue, and is working hard behind the scenes to keep his fitness up after a strong pre-season before he was slowed down “out of the blue”.
“The main thing that is important, because I’m not allowed to run at the moment, is how I keep my fitness up, so I’ve been doing a lot of swimming, a lot of bike riding,” Allen said on TAB Radio.
“Really just anything I can to keep myself in good physical shape, and also mentally it’s important to get a lot of physical stuff done. A lot of gym work to try and put on a bit of size.
“At the moment, my program is pretty low-key on track so people won’t really see me doing that much training right now, but I’m toiling away in the back with a couple of other boys who are also coming back from some injuries as well.
“We’re looking at about round five at the moment. We’ve got Sydney at home, which will be a big game.
“But I think some other players might be available around a similar time so just working out on how to get us as fit as possible, so when we are ready to go straight away we can have an impact.”
After pinch-hitting in the ruck in previous campaigns, Allen is preparing to spend the season as a permanent forward once he returns.
The Eagles recruited some depth in attack by adding Hugh Dixon to the rookie list last week, and the ex-Fremantle forward has shown plenty of promise in two warm-up games against his ex-teammates.
Dixon booted two goals in the first scratch match, and showed his agility and impressive ground level prowess for a 197cm big man at Optus Stadium on Sunday.
“He’s made a great impression,” said Allen, who was recently added to the Eagles' leadership group.
“He knows what it’s like to be in an AFL program and you can tell, straight away he’s caught up with the gameplan and the boys really love being around him.”
