West Coast ruckman Nathan Vardy will have a delayed start to the 2018 season, after scans revealed a tear in his abductor muscle.
Vardy sustained the injury during the Eagles' practice match against Fremantle on Sunday, and will now miss at least four weeks.
โThe scans and doctorโs prognosis is probably a little bit worse than weโd first expected; heโs going to take some time to recover,โ West Coast's General Manager of football Craig Vozzo told westcoasteagles.com.au.
โWeโre thinking itโs probably a month to six-week injury, but weโre not really going to know until he starts healing and then we start taking him through each phase of the recovery process.โ
The injury is a major setback for Vardy, who solidified his spot in the Eagles' best 22 last season, playing 22 games including both finals.
Despite the injury, Vozzo can take some positives from the incident, given Vardy's history of injuries.
โThe positive thing is itโs not a structural injury and heโs suffered some pretty significant structural injuries over time,โ Vozzo added.
โHeโs also well-equipped from a mental point of view to get through periods in rehab, so heโs quite upbeat actually.
โHeโs quite relieved in the sense that itโs a setback but not a season-ending setback, which heโs experienced in the past.โ
Before moving to West Coast for the start of the 2017 season, Vardy played 25 games for Geelong across six years.
