Geelong star Cam Guthrie will play his first game in 17 weeks on Saturday as he prepares to return for football.
The only question that remains is what level it will be at.
Guthrie hasn't played since Round 6 this year, battling a toe injury in that time. But the Cats are confident he's ready to go and are weighing up whether to inject him back into AFL action.
Cats on the horizon 🌅 The Round 23 Health Update is now live.#WeAreGeelong | @GMHBA
— Geelong Cats (@GeelongCats) August 15, 2023
“(He’ll return to) some type of football – that’s something to be determined over the next couple of days, and Cam Guthrie is available to play (this weekend),” footy boss Simon Lloyd told the club's website.
“He’s super excited, and has been running really well, hitting all his metrics, so can’t wait to see the number 29 running around this weekend.”
The news is similarly decent for Tom Hawkins, who is expected to train fully on Wednesday before the Cats decide whether to roll the dice in a must-win game.
But it's a bad update for Gary Rohan, who was subbed out in the first term of Geelong's Round 22 loss to the Magpies and is now set to miss weeks with the discovery of a hamstring injury.
“It was very hard to assess live. It was an awkward injury at the time, and our medical team live was saying well, there’s an adductor, a hip and a bit of hamstring that they were trying to work through – hence why we scan these things on a Monday and work through our assessment,” Lloyd said.
“Unfortunately, Gary has a moderate hamstring injury and he’ll miss this weekend and potentially weeks after that.”
Mark Blicavs is at least a couple of weeks away but could return for the finals, should Geelong make it that far.
Chris Scott's men need to win their next two games against St Kilda and the Western Bulldogs to play finals, with destiny still in their own hands.