Essendon football boss Josh Mahoney has conceded Michael Hurley “has a bit of a fight ahead of him” as he continues to battle a nasty hip infection.
The 30-year-old lifted spirits when he appeared on crutches at the club’s scratch match against Carlton on Thursday, after battling an infection in the last month which entered his bloodstream after off-season hip surgery.
Hurley looked to have lost a considerable amount of weight battling the infection, while he’s also been on antibiotics for almost a month.
Mahoney said the club’s sole focus was to ensure Hurley returns to full fitness as quickly as possible, with his return to AFL action to be mapped out after he returns to training.
"It’s been a really frustrating (few weeks) for Michael Hurley and the club,” he said on Sportsday.
“He had done six weeks where he trained the whole pre-season and then to have an infection in his leg, he’s now been taking antibiotics for three and a half weeks and hasn’t been able to do any training.
“Being bedridden for three or four weeks certainly pushed him back, he’s struggling to get around, he’s on crutches at the moment and lost quite a bit of weight.
“Right now it’s a good spirit lifter for the guys to see him today at the game, he was desperate to come and that’s part of his character.
“He has a bit of a fight ahead of him, the main thing is he gets back to being healthy and then we can worry about building him back to play footy again.”
Mahoney flagged that Essendon trio Harry Jones, Nik Cox and Archie Perkins could all be in the frame to make their AFL debut against Hawthorn in Round 1.
The Bombers will face off against Geelong in their only AAMI Community Series clash next week before the season begins.