Should Nat Fyfe retain the Fremantle captaincy?
The superstar midfielder is struggling to get his body right ahead of the 2022 season after shoulder surgery did not quite go to plan.
Fyfe had a bone graft taken from his hip to put onto his troublesome shoulder, but signs of an infection were found after a few days.
As a result, Fyfe is on antibiotics for the next few months to ensure there is no further infection meaning he cannot sweat or train while both shoulders and his hip recover.
The 30-year-old spoke of his struggles this week.
“We went and got it scanned and it’d just blown to pieces,” he told 7NEWS in Perth.
“There’s just a small percentage of these shoulder operations that don’t work and unfortunately I’ve become a statistic of that.
“I’ve had the same surgery on my left shoulder with the same surgeon in Melbourne and I’ve never had an issue with that again.
“It’s pretty grim. I haven’t run for four months so I’ve got a fair bit of work to do to make sure I’m ready to go next year.”
With that being the case, should the two-time Brownlow Medallist focus on himself first and give up the leadership?
Former Essendon skipper Tim Watson believes the burden of captaincy could be too much for a player whose primary focus is simply to get back on the training track.
“There’s no way known that he’s going to be the captain of Fremantle next season,” Watson said on SEN Breakfast.
“How can you be under those circumstances? How can you be captain?
“He hasn’t run for four months, he hasn’t got back to training yet. He’s that far behind.”
Garry Lyon said: “That’s not going to affect his leadership.”
Watson replied: “Of course it does.
“His ability to get out there and play is going to affect his leadership.
“If he’s going into the season underdone, if he’s going in with a real question mark about his ability to be able to play again in the way that he played previously and have that pressure on him.
“That’s the last thing you need to do and have leadership thrust up on you as well.
“There’s not a hot take in that. I’m just thinking about his situation right now.”
Fyfe has been skipper of the Dockers since 2017 and has led the club out on 85 occasions.