Star defender Jeremy McGovern made an uplifting return to the West Coast Eagles’ nest on Monday as he continues his recovery from surgery on broken ribs.
McGovern was badly injured in round 14 against Geelong and will map out his rehabilitation program after a review with his surgeon in coming weeks.
“It was really good to see ‘Gov’ in at the club yesterday. He caught up with the doctors and did his post-surgical checks,” Head of Health Mark Finucane told westcoasteagles.com.au.
“He’ll have a review with the surgeon in a couple of weeks with some follow-up scans, and we’ll take that advice as to what the rest of his season looks like from that appointment onwards.
“He’s just got to be a gradual build after that significant injury, so he’ll be fairly quiet over the next couple of weeks and we’ll map things out from there.”
Prolific midfielder Dom Sheed is also being monitored following shin soreness which kept him out of the drought-breaking win over Essendon.
“Dom’s had a bit of awareness in his lower leg, so we’ve just got to monitor his level of awareness over the course of the week,” Finucane said.
“But coming off the long lay-off that he’s had we’ll take a conservative approach and won’t be pushing that.
“Tom (Joyce) is in a similar boat to Dom in that we’re just going to monitor how his ankle is feeling and, again, with the long lay-off we don’t want to push that or be aggressive, so we’ll take that conservative approach with the two of them.”
Following successful WAFL comebacks for Nic Naitanui and Xavier O’Neill last weekend, the Eagles’ injury list is set to shrink again with tall forward Hugh Dixon and hard-running small Zac Langdon on the cusp of resuming their stalled seasons.
After 14 AFL-listed players helped the WAFL Eagles to their first win of 2022 on Saturday night, the Eagles’ availability is healthier than at any point this year.
Dixon has missed the past three weeks with calf and ankle issues but could put his hand up this round, with Langdon (ankle) then set to return from his two-month lay-off.
“Hugh had the calf and then tweaked his ankle. The ankle has settled down, so he’s got some functional tests to sign off at training later in the week and he’ll be very close to playing, if not this week, then next,” Finucane said.
“Zac’s been progressing really well through his rehab and we’ve seen his elite running out on the track, and he’s got a big sign-off session on Saturday and hopefully on track to be available next week.”
Injury list:
Oscar Allen Foot Inactive
Campbell Chesser Ankle Inactive
Tom Cole Ankle Inactive
Luke Edwards Groin Inactive
Hugh Dixon Ankle Test
Tom Joyce Ankle TBC
Zac Langdon Ankle 1-2 weeks
Jeremy McGovern Ribs TBC
Dom Sheed Shin TBC
