If the build up to this weekend’s game wasn’t big enough already, the focus is now on players having to pass fitness tests before Sunday.
Nat Fyfe, Matthew Pavlich, David Mundy, Luke McPharlin and Michael Johnson will all need to pass a fitness test on Friday morning ahead of Sunday’s Carlton Draught Derby to be available for selection.
Freo’s sports science manager Jason Weber said Nat Fyfe is tracking well.
“Nat trained fully with the group this morning, he’s passed all his KPI’s on the back of the groin issue he had,” Weber Said.
“We expect him to be available for match committee this week.”
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David Mundy trained with the team on Wednesday morning while Pavlich was missing.
“David had a run this morning, he has an ongoing ankle problem that we are keeping on top of,” Weber said.
“Matthew has had a little bit of a flare up in an old injury from the weekend, it looks to be acute, it was just a hard running game for him.
“He’s put in plenty of kilometres. We’ll treat it through the week and have it assessed and with good fortune get him to match committee as well.”
There is also some doubt over McPharlin who was subbed out of Sunday’s win against the Saints in the third quarter.
“Luke took a pretty solid cork to the calf an he’s got a bit of history in that area so we were pretty quick to move him out,” Weber said.
“At this stage he’ll be a test for this week, he’s got a few things going on that we need to asses throughout the week and get him training on Friday.”
This Sunday’s Carlton Draught Derby could also see the return of Johnson who injured his hamstring in the round 10 game against Richmond and has not played since.
“Michael’s had a significant period out but he’s trained absolutely flawlessly so we look forward to having him in training on Friday,” Weber said.
“We’ll get him to match committee and let the coaches pick him if they want him.”
