NIGGLING injuries have sidelined four Port Adelaide players from the field this weekend.
Patrick Ryder is the most significant of Port's outs this weekend, forced to miss Saturday's AFL Indigenous Round game against Melbourne with an Achilles problem.
Port Adelaide's head of high performance Darren Burgess says a no-risk approach with these concerns is necessary to preserve each player's longer-term interests.
"He's been battling some minor Achilles stuff for the last couple of weeks and reported it was sore during last week's game," Burgess explained.
"He hasn't come up right for this week and we've made the decision to keep him out and review him next week."
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Brendon Ah Chee and John Butcher have both battled knee problems during the week and, similar to Ryder, have been given a weekend to recover.
Fellow SANFL player and first-year tall backman Logan Austin has also battled groin soreness, and has been kept out of Sunday's game against Glenelg at Alberton as part of his management program.
"Butcher and Ah Chee had patella problems during the week, but should be available for Saturday week," Burgess said.
"Logan has developed a little bit of groin soreness, and we're going to be conservative with him because he's an important young player who we want to take care of."
