West Coast ruckman Nathan Vardy will have a delayed start to the 2018 season, after scans revealed a tear in his abductor muscle.
Vardy sustained the injury during the Eagles' practice match against Fremantle on Sunday, and will now miss at least four weeks.
“The scans and doctor’s prognosis is probably a little bit worse than we’d first expected; he’s going to take some time to recover,” West Coast's General Manager of football Craig Vozzo told westcoasteagles.com.au.
“We’re thinking it’s probably a month to six-week injury, but we’re not really going to know until he starts healing and then we start taking him through each phase of the recovery process.”
The injury is a major setback for Vardy, who solidified his spot in the Eagles' best 22 last season, playing 22 games including both finals.
Despite the injury, Vozzo can take some positives from the incident, given Vardy's history of injuries.
“The positive thing is it’s not a structural injury and he’s suffered some pretty significant structural injuries over time,” Vozzo added.
“He’s also well-equipped from a mental point of view to get through periods in rehab, so he’s quite upbeat actually.
“He’s quite relieved in the sense that it’s a setback but not a season-ending setback, which he’s experienced in the past.”
Before moving to West Coast for the start of the 2017 season, Vardy played 25 games for Geelong across six years.
