Hawks defender Changkuoth Jiath will not return to the field in 2023, battling an ongoing groin injury he received playing for Box Hill early last month.
Jiath hasn't played senior footy since Round 9 after he suffered an Achilles and calf injury that kept him out of the side. But he then was deemed fit enough to return to the VFL before he suffered his latest injury that has ruled him out of any possible return in 2023.
High-Performance Manager Peter Burge spoke withย Hawthornfc.com.auย about how the Hawks will be taking a cautious approach with just three games remaining in the season to prepare him for next season.
"In the last week, we've seen some improvement with his clinical signs, and he has also managed to start some low-level running on our Alter G treadmill," Burge said.
"But time is running out in the season with three games to go, so we've decided as a medical team and coaching team that he won't play again this year.
"Our primary goal at the moment is just to get him back to full fitness as soon as possible so we can really attack the pre-season and plan for 2024."
The Hawks are expecting to welcome back Karl Amon, who has missed the last two weeks and will just need to pass training this week to confirm his spot in Sam Mitchell's side.
"We've had him running again in the last week, and we then built that training load over the weekend," Burge explained.
"He participated in training today and we expect him to fully train Thursday.
"We'll make a final call on his availability for the weekend, but it's looking certainly more positive this week."
Sam Frost is also likely to return from his foot injury after the club decided to rest him last weekend to ensure no further damage was done.
โWe de-loaded Sam last weekend, he's had a niggling foot issue on and off during the year,โ Burge added.
โIt was starting to trouble him again recently, so we offloaded him towards the end of last week and we got him going again on the weekend, he trained today and will fully train again Thursday.โ
Hawthorn takes on the Western Bulldogs at UTAS Stadium in Tasmania on Sunday at 12:40 pm local time.
