Michael Barlow's advice for Tom Mitchell

Former Fremantle and Gold Coast midfielder Michael Barlow has some advice for Tom Mitchell, who broke his leg today at a Hawthorn training session.

Barlow, who has gone through two separate broken legs, said the key piece of advice is to not lock yourself into a return time.

“I think right now everyone will be very keen to know how long he’ll be out for and when he’ll be back, but having known the injury quite well, it’s one of those things, the first thing I was told was don’t put an expectation on a return date,” Barlow told SEN Afternoons.

“The bone will heal, but then it’s all about your body adapting and reproducing your muscles that waste away over the short term. He’ll be non-weight-bearing for about 10 weeks.”

Hawthorn has released a statement saying they expect the 2018 Brownlow Medallist to miss the entire season and Barlow related it to his own experiences.

“My personal experience in 2010, I missed 12 months of footy. I did have a lot of soreness and some issues that lingered with bone stress,” Barlow said.

“Having spoken to a lot of blokes that’ve done it, they’ve come back in eight months without too many lingering issues so it’s kind of a case by case.

“We won’t know much about Tom’s injury until he gets back on his feet.”

Mitchell went down during a clearance drill at training this morning and was taken to hospital in an ambulance.

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