Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley says that high flyer Jamie Elliot could be missing for as long as three months as he continues to battle a back complaint.
“He had a good session today and his progress is good,” Buckley said.
“It’s really hard to put a number on it.
“We still think that he’s going to need another week or two of running, probably two or three weeks of conditioning on top of that.
“So we think, long-term, we’d have six to eight, but it could be four to 12.
“Conservatively, we won’t see him in the next month. He’s got a lot of work to do to get back up to speed."
Meanwhile, Buckley refused to accept that former Brownlow Medalist Dane Swan may have played his final game of AFL football after breaking his leg in Round 1.
“When he gets it fixed tomorrow we will know a bit more about the recovery time looks like,” he said.
“And when the dust settles, I’ll have a sit down with Swanny and have a chat with him about how he’s feeling, where he sees himself going forward.
“They’re ongoing discussions with everyone around the place...He’ll have a big say given what he’s provided to the club for a long period of time and given the fact he’s his own man."