Darcy Moore, Taylor Adams and Jordan De Goey are the three players to watch at Collingwood from an injury perspective heading into the Christmas break.
Moore was hospitalised with osteomyelitis, a bone infection that can cause soft tissue around bones to swell and is caused by bacteria or fungi.
He is now back home and recovering, with AFL Media’s Josh Gabelich reporting that the Pies are thankful it was caught early.
“They’re really relieved at Collingwood. It’s actually quite a serious situation a bone infection, but they got onto it really quickly,” Gabelich told SEN Mornings.
“He spent some time in hospital and he’s back home at the moment. They won’t see him this side of the new year, but they expect him to get back into training after Christmas and after that break in January, but it remains a bit unclear as to when he will make a full recovery.
“No concern around Round 1, but they’re hopeful it’ll be straight after Christmas.”
Taylor Adams suffered a complete rupture of his adductor in the club’s Qualifying Final loss to Geelong, with Collingwood taking it slowly with their star midfielder.
“Taylor Adams is training away to the side going through running sessions. We haven’t seen him since that really gruesome groin injury against Geelong,” Gabelich said.
“He’s building up and they’re pretty happy with where he’s at.
“He’ll transition back into full training in the new year and he was going really well until last week where they were just a little concerned about a few things and they’re going to be a little bit conservative this side of Christmas.”
Star midfielder Jordan De Goey underwent a minor shoulder surgery he played through during the finals series.
“Jordan De Goey is the one we touched on. Just a little bit of concern there, so they went and got him fixed up last week with an arthroscope with his shoulder,” Gabelich said.
“That was the same game against Geelong in the final where he hurt his shoulder. They were hopeful a bit of rest in the off-season would have sorted it out, but he needed some shoulder surgery.”
A pair of other Magpies are also good to go following off-season shoulder surgery.
“Speaking of shoulder surgery, Pat Lipinski and Brayden Maynard both had shoulder reconstructions at the end of the season, but they’re both out and training fully so they’ve made really strong recoveries from those operations,” Gabelich said.