Young Bomber Mason Redman will spend an extended period on the sidelines after suffering an untimely ankle injury in Essendon’s strong victory over West Coast.
Redman had impressed in his return to the senior side against Brisbane and the Eagles, but will be forced to watch the team from the stands after suffering the disappointing injury late in the final term last Thursday.
“Mason got his ankle caught on another player with five minutes to go in the West Coast game,” Physical Performance Manager Justin Crow said on the SKINS Injury Update on Tuesday.
“He ran off, he was assessed at the time – we thought he might have a syndesmosis injury – he was scanned (and) unfortunately he does, he has an injury to the anterior portion of his syndesmosis.”
Fellow Bomber Mitch Brown suffered a similar injury last year and Crow said he is expecting Redman’s recovery to follow the same path.
“What we’re going to do is we’re going to operate on that tomorrow, put a band around it,” he said.
“(It is a) similar timeframe to return as what Mitch Brown worked through last year, around the eight-week mark usually.
“But obviously we’ll be taking this step by step and listening closely to what the surgeon has to say after the operation.”
Jayden Laverde is also set for a stint off the field and Crow said he expects the versatile Bomber to miss just two weeks after suffering a minor hamstring injury.
“Jayden has a hamstring strain – minimal grade in a sense that there’s very minimal fibre disruption.
“These miss two weeks and return at three weeks, all going well.”
In better news, gun midfielder Darcy Parish stepped up his training on Tuesday as he recovers from a significant thumb injury.
“Darcy had his first go at handling the football today with that hand, thumb and wrist and that went well,” Crow said.
“He’ll be gradually progressing that over the back end of this week and the weekend.
“We’re hopeful then that all going well, (he) would certainly have done enough running to be available to play. It’s whether or not he can handle the football and tackle and do all those other things that the game requires.”
Defensive duo Jordan Ridley and Patrick Ambrose both returned from injury impressively for the VFL Bombers on Sunday, and Crow said they will join speedster Travis Colyer in the line for senior selection this week.
“Jordan Ridley got through the game without issue and had good running numbers, so did Patrick Ambrose back to his running best in that game,” he said.
“Trav Colyer as well played his first full game, 100 minutes, in the VFL and got through it in good condition, so all three of those players will be available this weekend.”