Selwood a likely starter for Cats

GEELONG coach Chris Scott is confident about Joel Selwood’s chances of a return for Friday night’s qualifying final against Richmond, but stressed the club would not jeopardise the rest of the captain’s September campaign.

Selwood trained strongly on Saturday to bolster his hopes of a return for the blockbuster clash at the MCG, featuring in match practice little more than a month after ankle syndes- mosis surgery.

Scott was impressed with what he saw from the midfield warrior and was i ncreasingly confident of his prospects.

“He looked pretty good in the vision,’’ Scott said.

“We’ve had a bit of recent experience with this type of syndesmosis injury. Mark Blicavs came back and performed well last week and no two individuals are the same even though they had a similar injury.

“Joel had surgery, Mark didn’t. The vision [of Joel] looked pretty good. To reiterate what [Selwood] said, I think it’s looking more likely than unlikely [he’ll play].’’

Selwood was injured in the Cats’ Round 20 loss to Sydney at Simonds Stadium, with Scott describing the skipper as a “bit of a freak” with his recovery powers.

But he said the Cats needed to be careful.

“We do need to be a little bit careful with Joel because I suspect he will just say ‘I’m right’,’’ Scott said.

“We’re optimistic we’ve got a bit of footy in front of us after this weekend. The things to consider are: will it do further damage? We’re really confident that’s not the case.

“It’s different to soft tissue issue where you can feel really good and, bang, it goes and you miss four weeks.”