Hamstrung Giant set to be sidelined for a month

A HAMSTRING tendon injury will keep GWS star Zac Williams on the sidelines for a month, robbing the Giants of one of their most influential players.

The Giants hope Phil Davis, who also suffered a hamstring injury in their gutsy two-point win over Collingwood last week, will be fit to tackle Hawthorn on Sunday night.

GWS had been optimistic that Williams, whose rebounding run helped rattle Collingwood and snap a two-game losing streak, might also be in the mix to face the Hawks at Giants Stadium.

But scans confirmed a fresh setback for the 25-year-old, who returned from an achilles tendon injury after the COVID-19 shutdown and is expected to be courted by multiple clubs this year as a restricted free agent.

Davis could find himself matching up on former teammate Jon Patton if the hulking Hawks forward is able to return from a foot injury.

Youngster Isaac Cumming, who played rounds 1 and 2 this season and would ordinarily headline the contenders to replace Williams, suffered a serious hamstring injury in last Friday’s curtain-raiser.

There was good news for Fremantle’s Nat Fyfe, with his hamstring injury likely to keep him out for only a fortnight. He remains on track to play West Coast in the Round 7 western derby after scans confirmed a low-grade tear.

Fyfe injured his right hamstring in the third quarter of his team’s 13-point loss to Gold Coast on Saturday night.

Dockers high performance manager Jason Weber said the Brownlow medallist could miss as little as one week.

“Nat’s scan’s been quite positive, he’s got a small amount of damage, very much to the outside of the muscle, so we’ve only listed him as 1-2 weeks,” Weber said.

The Dockers will take on rival West Coast at Optus Stadium on July 19. That will give Fyfe 22 days of recovery time from the injury and there’s even a chance the two-time Brownlow medallist could return a week before the derby.