Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew is cautious about blooding Izak Rankine against West Coast given his recent hamstring problems.
Dew says Rankine may need to be patient before making his highly-anticipated debut for the Suns as he is reluctant to “throw him to the wolves” against a seasoned Eagles side.
“He’s one that we’re going to have to decide … it’s well known that he’s had a couple of hamstring injuries … he’s certainly one that we may be reluctant to play early,” Dew told SEN’s Dwayne’s World.
“We want to make sure that he plays the whole year as best he can as opposed to rushing him.
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“We all want to see him play, but in an ideal world, we would have loved to have seen a little bit more of him before jumping into 80 to 100 minutes of AFL footy against a team that’s probably going to roll out 15 guys over 150 games.
“We don’t want to throw him to the wolves and have that pressure on him, we’ve got to make sure that he’s physically sound and in the best possible shape.”
The No.3 pick in the 2018 draft suffered a low-grade hamstring strain prior to Gold Coast’s Round 1 loss to Port Adelaide after managing just three NEAFL games in 2019.
Gold Coast host West Coast at Metricon Stadium on June 13.
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