Melbourne recruit Michael Hibberd will still need up to three weeks to recover from Achillies soreness before he's ready to play after a slower than usual recovery time.
Hibberd felt Achilles tightness before Melbourne's final JLT Community Series game against West Coast, and was pulled out of the match as a precaution.
Melbourne elite performance manager Dave Misson said the club will take every precaution with Hibberd, as the former Bomber continues to get himself right on the sidelines.
"Hibbo settled really well over the weekend and he ran well [Tuesday] but because he's been a little bit up and down, he's probably a couple of weeks away," Misson told Melbourne TV for the club's website.
Misson also gave updates on the fitness of Aaron vandenBerg (heel), Josh Wagner (fibula) and Jay Kennedy-Harris (arm), as the trio all continue to work through their rehab.
โVanders has that heel stress fracture and itโs been a little bit slow, so heโs still in a boot at the moment and will probably come out next week. Heโll need a reloading program to get him up to play.
โJosh started training Tuesday, so heโll continue to do that for a couple of weeks, because heโs been out now for nearly five weeks. Heโll need a couple of weeks training before he comes back to play.
โJay Kennedy-Harris is actually going really well. He sees the surgeon early next week to get the clearance for contact, so he could actually be training with the group by next week and playing the week after that, so heโs going well.โ
