Port Adelaide anticipate ahead Charlie Dixon to be amongst a key trio to return from harm for Saturday night time’s table-topping blockbuster towards Collingwood.
Dynamic on-baller Zak Butters has additionally been cleared of a groin harm and can characteristic within the Adelaide Oval fixture between the ladder-leading Magpies and second-placed Power.
Butters was substituted out of Port’s loss to Carlton final Saturday, a sport which Dixon (ankle), midfielder Jason Horne-Francis (again) and fullback Trent McKenzie (ankle) missed.
Dixon, Horne-Francis and McKenzie will all return, barring any flare-ups at coaching this week.
“We expect Charlie to be right, he ran yesterday and felt pretty comfortable,” Port assistant coach Josh Carr mentioned on Tuesday.
“(Horne-Francis) is moving alright and he’s pulled up well from weekend training and been looking after that back so we also expect him to be in.
“He had been combating that again and it wasn’t going to get any higher by enjoying.
“And we have obviously got the bigger picture, which is the whole season, to make sure that he can get through.
“We felt that it was getting worse each week and we wanted to do one thing about it and that was clearly not enjoying on the weekend.
“Hopefully he gets through this week’s training and it’s better and he’s ready to go.”
The Power might be with out Darcy Byrne-Jones (concussion) however McKenzie’s probably return places stress on captain and fellow defender Tom Jonas to retain his spot within the facet.
Jonas was summoned to switch McKenzie after the skipper spent seven weeks in state league ranks.
“There’s a lot of water to go under the bridge as far as selection goes,” Carr mentioned.
“Those (selection) conversations will be had later in the week.”
Goalsneak Junior Rioli can be on the choice desk after lacking the loss to the Blues, which ended Port’s club-record 13-game successful streak, to attend a household perform in Darwin to mark his father’s passing in mid-July final 12 months.
And Orazio Fantasia can be pushing for his first AFL sport this season – the injury-plagued ahead kicked three objectives within the state league final weekend, his fifth match on the decrease degree prior to now six weeks.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
