Nakia’s career up in the air
GEELONG has conceded it does not know when Nakia Cockatoo will be ready to resume playing football.
Having suffered a series of injuries since being selected by the Cats with pick 10 in the 2014 national draft, Cockatoo’s latest adductor complaint was already going to keep him sidelined for the early rounds of the season.
But football manager Simon Lloyd revealed last night that Geelong was not in a position to say when the prodigious talented would return.
“We have been guessing for a while (about when he will be available) and it is a trap you get caught up in,” Lloyd told K rock Football.
“There are times when I am lying in bed at night and I am thinking of Nakia Cockatoo and when he is going to be right.
“It has been frustrating for him and he has worked really, really hard on his rehab but it has just been three steps forward, two steps back.
“So we need to keep stepping back, working closely with the medical team and we need to get this right because he is very important for us. It is a challenge and it is one we are working through at the moment.”
Utility Cam Guthrie is understood to be a strong chance to take on Melbourne next Saturday after missing last night’s season-opener with calf tightness.
Lachie Fogarty and defenders Jed Bews and Zach Tuohy have all shown positive signs of progress on the training track in the past week.