PORT ADELAIDE forward Charlie Dixon could be back on the park sooner than first thought with ankle surgery now looking unlikely.

Dixon landed awkwardly in a marking contest at training just over a week ago.

Club medical staff and surgeons had been waiting for swelling to subside to determine whether surgery would be required, but assistant coach Chad Cornes says the ankle is settling better than expected.

“It looks like surgery at this stage won’t be required,” Cornes said during a press conference on Monday.

“When he initially did it, it looked quite serious, he was in a lot of pain and the talk around it was that it would require surgery and could be out for three months so that was a little frightening to start with but it’s getting better and better each day, the swelling has gone down and he’s actually walking around on it pretty much pain free at the moment.

“If all that continues, he should avoid surgery and be out on the track, not that it’s for me to say, but I would think around the four-week mark.”

Cornes worked closely with Dixon as a forward development coach before being elevated this season to being the club’s backline coach.

He said the group had been buoyed by Dixon’s prognosis but the club would know more as the week progressed.

“We know how important he is to the way we play,” Cornes said of the club’s leading goal scorer in 2021. “He’s a great on-field leader, the boys rally around him and he does inspire them.

“I was right near the contest when he went down. He was in a lot of pain and it didn’t look great so for it to turn out the way it has, everyone did breathe a sigh of relief.”

It was also positive news for Dixon’s fellow forward Orazio Fantasia with hope that he too could avoid surgery on a bothersome right knee.

With a freeze on elective surgery in South Australia to ease any pressure on the hospital system due to the pandemic, Fantasia’s knee has been given time to rest and appears to be responding.

“His plan is to go for a light jog on Wednesday, which is a good sign,” Cornes said of the former Essendon speedster.

“He’s working really hard in the gym just building the quad strength up and I had a chat to him this morning and he said it was feeling pretty good so if he gets through that little on-field jog on Wednesday, we’ll look to progress things from there.”

Fantasia booted 28 goals in 15 games in 2021 after crossing to Alberton from the Bombers.