Star Geelong forward Jeremy Cameron appears set to miss out again in the Cats’ clash with Melbourne at the MCG on Sunday afternoon.
The former Coleman medallist has yet to make his home-and-away debut for Geelong after suffering a hamstring injury earlier this year.
“We’ve got the reins well and truly on him,” Cats coach Chris Scott told a press conference today.
“It’s uncertain, at least in my mind, when we’re going to unshackle him.
“You can get some bad luck, and you’ve got to do everything you can to mitigate that bad luck, that’s the summary of where we’re at with Jeremy.”
Fellow recruit Shaun Higgins will miss this Sunday’s game too after injuring his thumb and hamstring in Geelong’s thrilling five-point victory over Hawthorn on Easter Monday.
“Higgins has a fracture of his thumb that requires surgery,” Scott said.
“That’s probably the issue more than his hamstring in terms of the recovery period. Medium-term for him.”
Rookie Francis Evans is also out with an ankle injury sustained in the Easter Monday clash.
“It’s medium to possibly a little bit longer for Francis, depending on whether he needs surgery on that ankle, which is a possibility at the moment,” Scott said.
But injured Cats Sam Menegola, Sam Simpson and Esava Ratugolea have taken positive steps in their injury recoveries.
Menegola appears in the frame to return this week after two rounds on the sidelines with a shoulder injury.
“We’re planning on Sam being available this week,” Cats football general manager Simon Lloyd said.
“He was tested last week and went very close to playing against Hawthorn.”
Simpson is completing “high volumes of running and conditioning” following a quad injury, according to Lloyd.
“We could see a lot on the outer wing where he was reaching high maximum speed and we’re really happy with his progress,” he said.
“He’s tracking really well.”
Ratugolea trained with the Cats VFL program on Tuesday following his leg injury.
“He completed high kilometres and competed in ruck-work so he’s jumping and landing and we’re considering playing him for a portion of this week’s VFL practice match,” Lloyd said.
“But we’ll make that decision later this week.”
