West Coast pre-season 2011 news

[j959]

Thought I'd start a West Coast pre-season thread ...

Kerr still struggling
source: Sportal.com.au - dated 26 Jan 2011

West Coast stars Daniel Kerr and Beau Waters will miss out on the first round of the NAB Cup as they continue their recovery from injuries, although the Eagles are confident they will both be fit for Round 1.

Kerr's has been the most extensive recovery after suffering a severe hamstring tear in Round 4 last season that required the muscle to be stapled back to the bone.

The 27-year-old has suffered a few setbacks since then, primarily as a result of extra inflammation around the staples, but coach John Worsfold believes the star onballer will be ready to join the main group at training in three weeks.

"He's got a pretty strict program to follow to build him," said Worsfold on Wednesday morning.

"So the plan at this stage is he builds up his running and starts to incorporate kicking and ground ball, some more football activities over the next two or three weeks and that's getting him ready to step into training."

"So when he actually joins in with the players, he'll be ready to go flat out, it's none of that join in and have to build up for a couple of weeks with the players, he'll be in and going, that's hopefully about three weeks or so down the track."

The hamstring tear was just the latest in a series of issues that have severely limited 27-year-old Kerr over the last three seasons, but his issues almost pale in comparison to Waters, who missed almost 18 months following an elbow injury in 2008.

Waters returned to senior action last season, however, and appeared to have barely missed a beat as he threw his body into contests with glee abandon, impressing the Eagles' hierarchy to the extent he was being seriously considered to replace Darren Glass as skipper.

However, Worsfold announced on Wednesday that the club's board had opted to retain Glass as captain, despite him being limited to eight games last season as he struggled with a serious groin injury.

Worsfold confirmed Glass would also be fit to start the new season, saying the board had ratified his position and appointed Waters as the club's sole vice-captain for 2011.

However, Waters has suffered a minor setback ahead of the new season, as he had minor surgery to his knee last Monday evening.

Along with Kerr, Worsfold said this will rule him out of the club's first-round NAB Cup clash with Fremantle and Hawthorn, the tri-club series to take place at Paterson's Oval, formerly Subiaco, on February 13.

"Beau's just had his knee cleaned out," said Worsfold.

"He's had a floating body in there so he had that cleaned out on Monday night, so he'll be two weeks out."

"His knee just jammed up on Friday at training and they checked it out and they thought it may have been a cartilage tear but it wasn't, it was just a floating body in there."

"They think he'll be back out training with the guys in about two weeks."

In other Eagles news, young ruckman Nic Naitanui will also be back in full training by next week after suffering some hamstring tightness.

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Link at: http://www.sportal.com.au/afl-news-display/kerr-still-struggling-109504

* Pls note I've cross-posted this article in Kerr's topic in the Players & Trades in SC thread