Jared Polec is looking likely to make his return to the field this weekend, as he aims to gain match fitness with North Melbourne’s VFL side.
Polec has been absent from any sort of match play since suffering a hamstring injury in Round 3, with the club looking to take a cautious approach to his recovery.
North GM Football Brady Rawlings says Polec’s training progression has ensured that receiving game time is the next step in his recovery.
“He’s completed a lot of training over the last two weeks, so much so that we’ve progressed him to play some minutes this week at VFL level, if he continues to tick the boxes this week,” Rawlings told North Media.
“His last two weeks have been really solid … he’s upped his training levels really well.
“It’s another positive step for Jared and we’re hoping he gets through training and the VFL game unscathed.”
Taylor Garner has unfortunately fallen short in the race to be fit for this weekend’s clash with Gold Coast, with the ankle injury suffered in Round 13 keeping him sidelined for another week.
Garner suffered the injury in the fourth quarter against the Giants, and even though he’ll miss this week, Rawlings says he is recovering well.
“He hasn’t quite been able to get to the level where he’s training with the main group, so we’re going to give it another week,” Rawlings said.
“Hopefully we can get him moving a bit more this week and have a full week of training next week.
“He’s healing quite well but he won’t get up for this weekend’s game unfortunately.”
Jed Anderson’s recovery from his own ankle injury is progressing well, with the inside midfielder set to contend for VFL minutes in the coming weeks.
Rawlings says Anderson’s training workload in the immediate future will determine when he returns for games.
“Jed’s completed a lot of training at the moment so that’s a really positive sign,” he said.
“Given he’s missed so much football we’ll need to progress him through the VFL. We’ll probably look at playing him for a half and then move from there.
“That could be as soon as next week, but he still needs to get through some solid sessions between now and then, but it’s certainly a possibility.”
Aidan Corr has taken a large step forward in his recovery from a toe infection, entering into an over ground running program, as he looks to return to the field.
After picking the infection up following the Round 2 clash with Gold Coast, getting rid of it proved to be troublesome for the defender, however he looks to be well on the mend.
Rawlings says the club has always taken a cautious mentality while rehabilitating Corr.
“The infection is clearing up really well. From a health point-of-view that’s a really good sign,” he said.
“We’re just starting to progress him to running over the ground at the moment. He completed a running session yesterday (Tuesday) at training and seems to have pulled up really well from that.
“It’ll just be a gradual progression given how much he’s missed, but from a health and movement point-of-view he’s ticking a few boxes, which is really good.”
