As the last three weeks of the AFL season approaches, some players are fighting to prove fitness while others have been ruled out of their sides' finals campaigns.
Fremantle key defender Brennan Cox will miss this weekend's Semi-Final clash with Geelong. His calf injury is expected to take one more week to recover making it possible for him to return if the Dockers win and move onto a Preliminary Final.
Speedy defender Brandon Walker appeared to seriously injury his ankle against Hawthorn last Thursday. However, Fremantle has said scans have come up good for Walker. He is listed as a test for this Friday night.
Geelong midfielder James Worpel will miss the remainder of the season with a hamstring injury.
Worpel has been sidelined since Geelong's Round 23 win over North Melbourne when he suffered the injury.
Despite hopes the ex-Hawk could return, a decision was made for him to undergo hamstring surgery this week. The Cats believe that surgery was the best choice to allow for an uninterrupted 2027 pre-season.
Worpel has only played 11 games in his first year at the Cattery as they head west to face Fremantle in a Semi-Final on Friday night.
The club is also continuing to work with Jake Kolodjashnij and his availability with concussion for both the AFL and VFL Finals, while Rhys Stanley is a test with his knee injury and Toby Conway and Harley Barker remain listed as TBC as they continue to make progress on their returns.
Brisbane will wait until Thursday to make a call on Noah Answerth's availability.
Answerth rolled his ankle during Brisbane's shock loss to Sydney last weekend. The defender is now a test and will need to prove he is fit to play in the Lions' Semi-Final clash against Adelaide this Saturday.
He has played 16 games this year for the Lions as Zane Zakostelsky, Reece Torrent, Henry Smith and Jack Payne have all been ruled out for the remainder of the season.
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Adelaide's Zac Taylor will be a test to face the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba.
Taylor missed last weekend with a hamstring injury sustained against GWS in the last round of the year. Crows GM of high performance Ian McKeown said the pre-finals bye was fortunate for the Crows forward.
“We know hamstring strains like Zac's are always around the three week mark,” he said.
“It was fortunate to have the pre-finals bye and for Zac to get the additional week off away from footy alongside the team.
“What's important now is the week ahead and how his body responds at training.”
Midfielder James Peatling will not be available for selection.
“It's still too soon for JP unfortunately,” McKeown said.
“We'll continue to monitor his progress with a hope of featuring again this year, pending finals results.”
Luke Pedlar has one week left on a hamstring injury he picked up in the SANFL in Round 15.
Sydney coach Dean Cox will have some tough decisions to make in a fortnight's time ahead of his side's Preliminary Final clash as winger Justin McInerney and key forward Joel Amartey are set to be available for selection.
McInerney (hamstring) and Amartey (Achilles) are expected to be ready for selection for the Swans' clash against either Fremantle or Geelong.
Amartey last played in Round 16 during Sydney's loss to Brisbane, while McInerney has been sidelined since Round 13
"Obviously Amartey will be available, McInerney will be available," Swans coach Dean Cox said on SEN on Monday.
"And then it just comes down to a selection issue. Which way do we go? How do we structure up our team? We'll have a really close look.
"We'll train heavily this week based on what we want to do, how we want to play, and then we'll turn our attention very quickly Friday night to watching that game and then over the weekend planning for what our best team looks like.
"Having both of them available is great, but then it just creates some selection issues that we'll work our way through."
One of the selection headaches to work through will be how to replace captain Callum Mills who unfortunately suffered a season-ending ACL injury in the team's Qualifying Final win over Brisbane.
