Collingwood coach Craig McRae is hopeful but not adamant on Nick Daicos’ availability for their Round 5 game against Fremantle on Friday night after missing Thursday’s loss with injury.
Daicos battled a corked calf all week but was named to play, flew up to Brisbane before being a late withdrawal during the warm-up after the final teams were announced.
McRae said: “He had a corkie in his calf. Tuesday training just wanted to get moving. That was the instruction. Didn’t train. Sort of hobbling around. He’s one of the best professionals in the game.
“We gave it every chance to improve, and he gets out here and we thought he’d start improving, but he just didn’t., then it’s a race against the clock. That’s where it landed.”
Daicos and the Pies now have an eight-day break before their Gather Round game against Fremantle on Friday night at Adelaide Oval.
McRae added: “We hope it improves. We do have three days off, and are back in on Monday.
“He’s such a pro. It’s a corkie, you’d think it starts to move, I don’t know … we’ll see how that goes.”
