The ruckman hurt his left shoulder during the first quarter of the clash against Essendon and was noticeably struggling for movement as the game played out.
But despite initial fears he’d suffered a tear, Goldstein was cleared of any significant damage. Now he’s looking ahead to a match-up against All-Australian ruckman Will Minson.
“I’m very confident. When the scans came back that there was no structural damage and that was a big plus,” he told NMFC.com.au.
“With just a corky or something like that in there it will take a couple of days to clear up and by the end of the week I should be feeling pretty good.
“They’ll put me into some contested stuff probably Thursday or Friday, but other than that it’s just making sure I get my physio and my rehab done and I’ll be ready to go come Sunday.”
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Goldstein was forced to use his right hand during many ruck contests against the Bombers’ Patrick Ryder, but remarkably still managed to even the hit-out tally.
“We’re not exactly sure how it (the injury) happened. We think possibly a whack to the shoulder in a marking contest, but I don’t remember any contact,” he added.
“It was a fair bit of pain. I couldn’t really lift my arm above my shoulders or I had a shooting pain go down my arm. It was pretty sore, but luckily I was able to bring my right hand into it a bit more and didn’t have to use it too many times.
“On the night the doctor thought I had torn something, but he was pretty confident no matter what I did it wasn’t going to get any worse than it was at that point, so it was safe for me to continue.”
Just four days later (on Tuesday), the big man was back on the training track aiming to prove his fitness for Round 2.
“It’s feeling a lot better today. I think the last couple of days with a bit of physio and a bit of rest it’s definitely helped out.”
