An eight-day break between games may help Brennan Cox get over the line to play in the upcoming RAC Derby, according to senior coach Justin Longmuir.
Fremantle will take on West Coast on Sunday at Optus Stadium, giving Cox extra time to recover from what scans revealed as an ankle sprain.
“He had a scan yesterday that was reasonably positive,” Longmuir told SEN WA.
“He’s got a bit of a sprain to his ankle and he’ll be touch and go. We’ll give him every minute of the week to get right, he’s really important to us and he’s turned himself into a really good player.
“We’ll give him every chance to get up. It will be touch and go, he’s got a lot of swelling in that ankle and it is quite sore but the scan result is positive.
“If this was a six-day break, Brennan probably wouldn’t get up. The length of break post-game plays into it as well. We have an eight-day break which will give us a little bit of extra time.”
Cox was substituted out of the game for medical sub Connor Blakely late in the clash.
“The doctors gave him every chance to go back out there and warm it up on the sidelines. He just couldn’t get the ankle right,” Longmuir said.
“You just don’t want to send a player out there and turn what possibly could be a week-long injury into a month or six weeks. He had a legitimate injury that we had to get him out of the game.
“It’s always about the welfare of the player and we thought it was the best thing on the weekend for him.”
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