JARED POLEC will not require surgery to his problem foot, but Port Adelaide will take a ‘softly, softly’ approach to his recovery.
Polec last played against the Crows in Showdown XXXVIII, but has since been forced off the field and into a ‘moonboot’ to relieve pressure on his injured navicular bone.
His most recent scans have shown some improvement in the bone’s healing, but the Power’s head of high performance Darren Burgess is still cautious around rushing any part of his recovery.
“The scan that we had last week showed some signs that the bone was healing,” Burgess told portadelaidefc.com.au.
“So we decided against taking the surgical option immediately and we’ll give the bone probably another 4-5 weeks to heal before reviewing again.”
While he can now walk unimpeded, Polec has been put on indefinite recovery and will only return to the track once future scans demonstrate significant healing in the bone.
The volatile nature of navicular healing means that surgery could be required if Polec can’t progress far enough by himself.
It requires constant reassessment and careful management, with Burgess saying unlike other injuries, the lack of surgery now doesn’t rule it out in future.
“You’ve got to give those bones as much time as possible, we can’t put a timeline on it,” Burgess said.
“If you can avoid surgery at any time, particularly with a navicular, you try and do it.
“We’ll rescan – probably every 2-3 weeks – and see, hopefully, that the healing continues and that we don’t need to go in with any kind of surgery, but we just don’t know how it will progress, even though the results of these new scans are encouraging.
“It will get better when it does, everyone knows how dangerous naviculars can be, so we’ll keep reassessing it all the time and work with him to continuously make the right call.”
In good news for Port Adelaide’s injury stocks, Paddy Ryder will be available for selection against Sydney this week after completing his recovery from an injured Achilles.
