Rested Selwood gears up to return against Saints
GEELONG expects skipper Joel Selwood to return for Saturday’s crunch clash against St Kilda.
But big man Esava Ratugolea won’t be back on field until after the mid-season bye after successful ankle surgery on Monday.
A corked quad picked up in the round 7 loss to Fremantle meant Selwood missed last weekend’s win over GWS
Giants, despite the captain’s best efforts to get right and play.
Selwood actively posed for photos on Monday last week, but felt pain when trying to reach top speed at training later in the week and was put on ice.
The Cats are managing the veteran’s body through his 16th season and were confident they made the right call to rest him, given they still managed to top the Giants by 53 points in round 8.
“It was a really good call not to play (Selwood) and we expect him to be available this week,” Geelong football boss Simon Lloyd said.
Fellow veteran Shaun Higgins remains in doubt for a return as he deals with multiple sore spots after being left out with “general soreness” last weekend.
Ruckman Rhys Stanley will be tested later in the week as Geelong prepares to face big St Kilda pair Paddy Ryder and
Rowan Marshall at Marvel Stadium on Saturday.
Ratugolea will be sidelined until the mid-season bye due to his surgery, which would put his return beyond five weeks away.
The explosive tall had spent weeks regaining fitness in his left ankle after rolling it against Collingwood in round 3, only to have two teammates fall on it in a contest late in Geelong’s main training session last Wednesday.
“He got up and jogged a little bit around the boundary line and then obviously was set to see a specialist, and unfortunately for Esava, he has had to go in for an operation,” Lloyd said.
“He did a huge amount of work to get himself ready to play and it was just one of those things where it was landed on awkwardly in a contest.”
Ratugolea previously had surgery on a severely broken right ankle in 2018.