Fremantle forward Sam Sturt remains a chance to play Brisbane in round two despite being held back for the past week due to a minor back injury, according to senior coach Justin Longmuir.
The injury flared up while working out during his mandatory 14-day quarantine period after arriving back WA form Victoria.
The round one NAB AFL Rising Star nominee has mainly undertaken running drills as the players trained in the past week.
Longmuir expects Sturt to return to training on Monday.
“Sam won’t be (training on Friday) he’s had a little bit of a set back with a bit of a back injury,” Longmuir said.
“It’s not bad but it will set him back a couple of sessions. We’ve earmarked Monday for him to return to the main group, so it will probably set him back a little bit.
Sturt starred for Fremantle with three goals against Essendon in round one and Longmuir said he would give the 19-year-old every chance to face the Lions.
“It makes it (round two) tougher. I’ve got him in the side at the moment,” Longmuir said.
“His round one performance was really encouraging, he’s done a lot of work over the break and he’s just had a little bit of a flare up.
“We expect it to settle down really quickly and he’ll still have two weeks leading into round two so we haven’t made any call on that yet.”
Longmuir had plenty of praise for Fremantle captain Nat Fyfe, who continues to set the standard at training.
“Nat looks refreshed and in great nick,” Fyfe said.
“He’s really pushing the groups that he’s involved in to another level.
“He’s obviously a self-motivated athlete so you never really needed to worry about him over the break. You know he’s going to come back in top condition and you know he’s going to invest in his teammates.”
