Carlton have confirmed ruckman Tom De Koning will miss Friday night’s game against Sydney due to a throat injury sustained at last round’s game.
The Blues put out a statement on Thursday that read: “The 25-year-old experienced a knock to the throat area in last week’s game and has been unable to recover in time to make the trip to Sydney.
“At this stage he is expected to recover to play in Round 11, with his availability to be further assessed next week.”
Earlier in the day, Carlton coach Michael Voss said: “Hoping it’s only this week. We’re fully expecting it’ll settle pretty quickly. It was worthwhile, just further investigation. Once it settles down, he’ll be right to go.”
North coach Alastair Clarkson was asked about Harry Sheezel’s role amid talk about a midfield shift.
He said: “It’ll depend on the opposition from time to time. Just what we’ve got in terms of who’s available on our half-back line. We’ll work that out from one week to the next.
“He’ll continue to play a variety of roles for us. Sometimes that’ll be game to game, sometimes that’ll be quarter to quarter. We’ll just use him where he’ll best fit the side.”
Richmond coach Adem Yze revealed Jayden Short trained after calf tightness. Yze said: “He should (good to go). He obviously had a tight calf pre-game… He’ll get through today and be available. Everything is looking and tracking OK. He’ll have to get through today’s session to be available.”
Toby Nankervis missed Thursday training but Yze said he’s not in doubt for this weekend.
Yze provided an update on young high draft pick Josh Smillie who recently suffered another hamstring injury.
Yze said: “It is only a minor setback, but we’ll give him an extra couple of weeks to get his body right, so when he is ready he is hitting the ground running. He is a really resilient kid, so he will be OK. He is not too far away.”
Geelong coach Chris Scott provided an update on Tom Stewart, who has missed a few games with knee soreness. He said: “You would’ve seen Stewart out there (at training) and Stanley, Henry, Humphries… We’ve got a little bit to work through but pretty optimistic on all of them.”
Fremantle ruckman Sean Darcy (knee) didn’t board the flight from Perth to Sydney for their game against GWS, but Liam Reidy was on the plane.
Freo coach Justin Longmuir on Tuesday indicated Luke Ryan was fully fit. He said: “Yep (he’s fully fit). He had some back issues early in the season. He’s always carrying a back issue. If you asked him, he’d say he’s fully fit.”
West Coast coach Andrew McQualter discussed Archer Reid’s status after being subbed out last game with a shoulder issue.
He said: “He’s been super competitive. I know he’s not getting a lot of numbers statistically but he is an incredible contest player. He’ll train today and we’ll make a call on him after training.”
GWS coach Adam Kingsley indicated Toby Bedford will return from an eye injury and weighed up whether to use him to tag Andy Brayshaw, Caleb Serong or others.
“(Bedford) prepares for both and he’ll get one or the other. That’s how he typically manages his week so there are no surprises game day. And then it becomes a matter of who do we think is bobbing up and hurting us more and do we make a change.” Kingsley said.
“They have more than just those two to be fair. They have some really damaging players. (Jordan) Clark off the half-back line is important for them, Shai Bolton is reasonable too.”
Sydney coach Dean Cox provided an update on Callum Mills who is getting close to a return from a pre-season foot injury. He said: “With Callum, we’ve always said we’ll sit down with him following each session about what the next one looks like.
“This is the last one he needs to get through before he decides to play a game, so hopefully that can happen. I don’t like getting too far ahead before players actually tick off what they need to.”
