Collingwood is considering “something different” with captain Darcy Moore’s recovery after his luckless stretch of injuries.
Moore could miss as many as eight weeks with another soft tissue injury, a hamstring he suffered against West Coast Eagles last weekend.
The hamstring concern follows a pre-season calf, hamstring awareness in Round 1, knee bursitis/hamstring issues in Round 3 and a concussion in Round 9.
Moore is no stranger to these setbacks, travelling across the world to see advanced soft-tissue doctors in Europe early in his career.
Coach Craig McRae said Collingwood needed to “be progressive” with Moore’s rehabilitation.
“It’s been a been a frustrating year for (Moore) to get on the paddock and then (again) on the on the field,” McRae said.
“Clearly we need to do something different because what we’re doing right now – given his body feedback – he’s not capable of doing it at the level which is required.
“We’ll be progressive around (rehab).”
McRae said that progressive approach could withhold a managed stint in the VFL for Moore.
“We might just weigh up what that means in terms of, ‘OK does he need to train for a bit longer to be fit and available? Does he need to play a VFL game?’” McRae said.
“I don’t know yet, (but) we’ve got to work all that out.”
The Magpies were queuing up at scans this week, with Jamie Elliott ruled out for the season with an ACL and Nick Daicos getting a sore foot looked at.
McRae said Elliott was in good spirits and Daicos was fit to play against Western Bulldogs on Saturday night.
But there is an injury cloud lingering over another key figure at Collingwood: the coach himself.
“I think everyone went in for scans this week, I popped in for a couple on my shoulder as well. That (clinic) was a revolving door,” McRae said with a laugh.
