Scully, Wingard back soon for Hawthorn

TOM Scully and Chad Wingard will play within weeks, Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson has confirmed.

Clarkson said he had time to thank for the ability to resurrect Scully after what was feared could be a debilitating ankle injury. He said the former Giant had been deliberately held back in an effort to put as much time and effort in as possible, with the reward potentially reaped within weeks.

“The benefit of wisdom and hindsight with GWS, they’d allow him more time, too,” Clarkson said. “But we’ve had the luxury of having no games to challenge us on when he’d return. GWS were trying to get him back so that he could play finals … the lure of him being able to play again probably meant that he came back a little bit earlier and his ankle just wasn’t ready to withstand those loads.

“We’ve been really fortunate that we haven’t had games right on the end of this to try and get him ready. We’ve been able to de-load him, have a good look at what his concerns were and take our time with building him up.

“Unless he has a hiccup in the next week, he will play some footy in the next two weeks.”

He said full fitness remained a realistic possibility for the 27-year-old.

“It was just based on the trade and all the implications of ‘why’s he being traded?’ and everything just put it down to the line of ‘he’s never going to play footy again’,” Clarkson said.

Wingard has battled a calf injury that saw him miss six weeks of full training, but Clarkson is optimistic the former Port Adelaide forward could return to either AFL or VFL within a fortnight.