Geelong will be without a trio of star forwards for their Round 24 match against the Western Bulldogs, while defender Esava Ratugolea will also miss the clash at Kardinia Park.
The Cats confirmed on Tuesday evening that a host of senior players won't face the Dogs, with Tom Hawkins (hamstring), Jeremy Cameron (shoulder) and Brad Close (ankle) joining Ratugolea (hamstring) in missing the club's season-ending contest.
Duo Gary Rohan (ankle) and Mark Blicavs (hamstring), who were already sidelined, have required surgery on their ailments and will use the coming weeks for recovery.
โEsava Ratugolea injured his hamstring, which was obvious during the game. It's actually the opposite side to the injury he sustained mid-season,โ Geelong football boss Simon Lloyd said in a club update.ย
โTom Hawkins had a reoccurrence of his hamstring injury, so that's relatively minor.
โBrad Close also had a moderate-grade lateral ankle injury, so he was unable to return to the field.
โSo those three players will begin their rehabilitation program โ or they already have begun โ and hopefully will start to recover and shift focus on to next season.
โWe've needed to be proactive in regard to some of the decisions we've needed to make, and Mark Blicavs had surgery on his shoulder yesterday.
โGary Rohan will have surgery on his ankle on Wednesday, and Jeremy Cameron will have surgery on his troublesome AC joint.
โIt's been incredible he's been able to keep going and performing at a certain level, and it's now time to be proactive with that surgery on his AC joint, which will be on Thursday.โ
Elsewhere, ruckman Rhys Stanley is a test to face the Bulldogs and will be required to prove his fitness after battling an adductor injury.
The club has also confirmed uncapped ruckman Toby Conway (ankle) and veteran midfielder Cam Guthrie (foot) both made successful returns through the VFL over the weekend.
The Cats could take a cautious approach as to whether Guthrie returns this week, while Conway could be in the selection mix if Stanley is unavailable.
โ(Stanley's) running at the moment. He'll be tested with change of direction and other aspects and measures he needs to tick off throughout the week, and we'll assess his availability in the latter part of this week,โ Lloyd said.
โCam goth through the game, so (it was) a successful return from a foot injury, which is really positive โ albeit it was on modified, reduced game time.
โWe'll probably go a more conservative approach with Cam this week, but again, that decision still needs to be made and assessed throughout the course of the week.
โToby Conway had a minor ankle injury the previous week and returned and looked really good. He was great in the contest, around the ground he had a big influence and (it was) a really positive game from Toby.โ
Geelong will host the Western Bulldogs at GMHBA Stadium at 7:25pm (AEST) on Saturday.
