Sean Darcy has been cleared to face Collingwood in the JLT Community Series on Monday at Joondalup Arena, according to senior coach Ross Lyon.
The Fremantle ruckman’s JLT Series was in doubt after coming off late with back tightness in last Friday’s intraclub game at Victor George Kailis Oval.
Lyon clarified that scans had cleared Darcy to play.
“Sean came off tight but he’s all good, the scans were all negative,” Lyon said.
“We’ll straight line run him (on Saturday). He’s just had some back tightness so we expect him to train tomorrow and play in the JLT, with Aaron out, he’s quite important to us.”
Lyon said Fremantle would need to wait at least another week to see midfielders Nat Fyfe and Reece Conca in the lineup while Michael Walters will be a test for JLT1 after picking up a cork at training.
Fyfe had minor surgery on Tuesday for an inflamed bursa and Conca is back in full training following a knee infection.
“Nat played AFLX and had surgery on Tuesday,” Lyon said.
“He’ll be running and working, probably on Saturday. He won’t play JLT1 but he’s every chance for JLT2.
“Reece’s was an odd one. He had a graze that became infected and ended up with a 72-hour stay in hospital.
“We could move him very quickly but then you risk soft tissue injuries. He hadn’t missed a session post-Christmas and he said, physically and mentally, he’d never felt better but we need to be conservative and get him ready for JLT2.”
Lyon said that he expects key forward Jesse Hogan’s loading to build after playing three-quarters of Fremantle’s intraclub.
“Jesse is progressing really well,” Lyon said.
“Our high performance team have done well to progress him as a navicular injury can be complicated.
“He’s hit every milestone, he played very well in the intraclub in the forward and midfield and we’ll do that in the JLT1 and JLT2 games.
“He didn’t play the full minutes but potentially in JLT1 he’ll go close maybe 80 to 90 per cent.”
Unfortunately for Fremantle, Stephen Hill is set to miss the opening rounds despite initially showing positive signs in his recovery from a quad injury.
“We thought (Stephen could play round one) but there was a little misstep on Thursday where he had a slight strain so that’s put him back,” Lyon said.
“They’re talking three to four weeks which is disappointing. He’s running fit, it was just a bit of a kicking issue and he’s had a slight strain.
“If it was any other player it would definitely be 21 days but with Stephen, we’ll have to assess it and see if it takes longer.”
