Exciting Carlton ruckman Tom De Koning is on track to play in Round 1 after having a blood clot removed from one of his shoulders during the pre-season.
Blues head of football Brad Lloyd revealed the positive news on Tuesday, a day after confirming Sam Walsh would undergo surgery on an ankle syndesmosis injury.
Walsh will have his operation on Tuesday and Lloyd said he would miss “the first three or four games” of the year.
“It was just in a match simulation at training and a player came across his ankle and got caught in that bit of a contest,” Lloyd told SEN.
“He was able to carry on and finish off the session, but scans revealed that syndesmosis injury, which can take a bit of time. It was really disappointing, unfortunately.
“He’s unbelievably resilient, but pretty disappointing.
“He was pretty stable and wasn’t in too much discomfort (so he finished the training session), but he had further scans yesterday that revealed he definitely needed to have some surgery today.”
De Koning’s swift recovery means he and Marc Pittonet are set to again shoulder the ruck load for Carlton as new coach Michael Voss’ side takes aim at ending its finals drought.
“He’s been moving around at training. He’s had the red vest on a little bit to avoid a bit of contact, but he’s starting to add some more contact into his training and he’s building up pretty well,” Lloyd said.
“He’s nearly back into the full program.
“We’ll see as we approach St Kilda and then Melbourne the following week in the pre-season games and we’ll see where we include Tom in there as we prepare for Round 1, but he’s been going pretty well.”
Lloyd also said hard-luck defender Caleb Marchbank was entering the final stages of his rehabilitation from an ACL rupture in his VFL return game last April.
Marchbank has played only 48 games since being the No.6 pick in the 2014 draft and none since Round 16, 2019 because of various injury setbacks.
“If you come down to training, you’ll see he’s such a great athlete and moves really well,” Lloyd said.
“He’s been doing a lot of running, so he’s starting to just get into that ball program with skills and starting to build up his football work.
“He’s had a really good preparation under our medical team, so he’s building up pretty well.
“We haven’t put an exact timeline on it for Caleb. He’ll have to tick a few boxes with the medical team, but he’s building up really well.
“He’s another one, with Liam Jones finishing up. Caleb’s a proven AFL player and is going to be important for us when he gets up and going.”
Lloyd said the Blues may not fill their vacant list spot until the mid-season draft but were keeping their options open after trialling captain Patrick Cripps’ brother Josh and Tyreece Leiu this summer.
Tough injury blow for Blues star on season eve
Carlton’s reigning club champion Sam Walsh is out for at least the first month of the season after suffering an ankle syndesmosis setback.
Walsh sustained the injury while being tackled in match simulation, and specialist advice confirmed he would require surgery.
The 21-year-old All-Australian has played all 61 games for the Blues since being the No.1 draft pick in 2018.
The news mars an otherwise positive pre-season for Walsh, who joined Jacob Weitering in beingxjmtzyw elevated to the co-vie-captaincy before inking a fresh four-year deal.
Carlton football boss Brad Lloyd was hopeful Walsh’s renowned professionalism and body of work leading into the season would enable him to return quickly.
“It is obviously disappointing news for Sam,” Lloyd said.
“He’d completed every session so far over the summer but unfortunately these incidents are a part of footy.
“Sam will throw everything into his rehab and his teammates will continue to do the same for the start of the season.”
Lloyd said the Blues’ medical staff would monitor Walsh’s recovery but the early indication was he would be ready to play after the first month of the club’s first campaign under Michael Voss.
His absence will provide an early test to Carlton’s midfield depth, which was bolstered by trading for Adam Cerra and signing George Hewett as a restricted free agent.
Stand-alone captain Patrick Cripps, Ed Curnow, Paddy Dow, Matt Kennedy, Will Setterfield and potentially Zac Williams will all have greater responsibility.
The Blues are playing pre-season games against St Kilda (February 24) and Melbourne (March 3) before facing Richmond in Round 1 on March 17.
