Gun Fremantle forward Michael Walters has successfully put two main training sessions in the bank and is on course to return to competitive football.

‘Son Son’ has not played since he had ankle surgery after the round 3 game against Hawthorn.

He joined the main group for the first time over the weekend, taking part in Sunday’s main training session.

Sports science manager Jason Weber said there was nothing but positive news to report from Walters’ return.

“He did a fantastic job, he’s progressed through training on Tuesday and he’s showing some people up at the moment,” he said.

“He’s progressing along very, very well and we’re very happy with how he’s handling training.”

Weber said the exciting forward was still being kept slightly under rein, but he admitted it would be hard to hold him back for too long.

“There is a slight modification with how he’s going, we ease him back in to an extent,” he said.

“But having said that, he was one of our top speed athletes on Tuesday.”

The sports science manager said the next few days would determine what the next course of action for Walters would be.

“Now is really about building his football load and getting him back into a competitive preparation mode,” Weber said.

“We’ll build him over the next couple of sessions and, during next week in consultation with Ross (Lyon), we’ll have a look at where he might play and how that might be progressed.

“But it’s still seeing how he backs up from the work this weekend.”

In other injury news, Clancee Pearce will miss up to three weeks with a hip injury he sustained in the WAFL.

“Clancee got caught in an unfortunate position in a tackle last week and he was forced backwards and injured one of the muscles that supports his hip,” Weber said.

“Unfortunately, he’ll be a couple of weeks now, but he trained strongly today and he’s certainly on his way back.

“If we can gather a couple of days and get him back quickly, we will.”

Alex Silvagni (ribs), Garrick Ibbotson (calf) and Stephen Hill (quad) were all listed as tests on the HBF Injury Update, but all trained on Tuesday.

“With Tuesday being main training and preparation for Carlton on Thursday, all those guys trained really strongly and they’re available for selection,” Weber said

 

Injury List - as at 4PM 29 JULY, 2014

PlayerInjuryDuration
Stephen HillQuadtest
Alex SilvagniRibstest
Scott GumbletonBacktest
Garrick IbbotsonCalftest
Michael WaltersAnkle1 week
Kepler BradleyHamstring1 week
Clancee PearceHip3 weeks
Brady GreyBackseason