HAMMY D-DAY

Cats sweat on Dangerfield scan as season opener looms

AN MRI scan today will reveal the extent of Patrick Dangerfield’s hamstring injury, but Geelong is buoyant about the prospects of midfield pair Gary Ablett and Nakia Cockatoo playing in Round 1.

Dangerfield said yesterday his hamstring felt “pretty good” but admitted it was hard to judge the severity, being his first such injury.

The typical recovery time for hamstring injuries is three weeks (it will have been two weeks between the trauma and Geelong’s season-opener on March 25), but the time can vary depending on damage.

Ablett is recovering from a hamstring injury suffered on February 22 and was part of a group of players who trained in Geelong on Saturday, including Cockatoo, Stewart Crameri and Scott Selwood.

He will increase his workload again tomorrow when he joins the main training group, but a call on whether he plays in a VFL practice match on Friday night will not be made until after that session.

The Cats will have a second, lengthy hitout on Friday and could choose to put Ablett and Cockatoo through their paces there instead of rushing them into a competitive match situation.

Cats football manager Simon Lloyd said Ablett’s chances of recovering in time to take on the Demons continued to grow, while Selwood was also on track to return in the first month of the season.

“We had a number of players — Nakia Cockatoo, Scott Selwood, Gary Ablett and Stewart Crameri — all train on Saturday. They all pulled up really well and are working around the clock to get them- selves right for the start of the season and beyond,” Lloyd said

“The positive thing this week is there will be a large number of players who we didn’t see on the weekend who will be in full training.

“There is a big group of players who have been doing a lot of work where you haven’t necessarily seen them playing games through JLT, but they have still been doing a lot of work and are in contention for Round 1.”