Watson sidelined again, Nash could miss season
Roger Vaughan |
Livewire forward Nick Watson is out of Hawthorn’s big AFL clash with Carlton as Conor Nash continues to battle a neck problem that could end his season.
While defenders Karl Amon and Jarman Impey could return from injury, the Hawks are being conservative with Watson and have ruled the star out for another week.
Watson missed last weekend’s bad loss to Melbourne with a minor hamstring injury, but coach Sam Mitchell had been optimistic that he would return to play the Blues.
“On Tuesday he ran 88 per cent of his top speed, which is still faster than most of us,” Mitchell said before Thursday morning training.
“But just from a confidence point of view, we don’t feel like it’s worth the risk with him – so he’ll miss one more and he’ll be available for next week.”
Nash has not played since round 10 because of a disc-related injury in his neck, affecting strength and power down one of his arms.
“It’s pretty complicated … its quite unusual, so we’ve had to go to some experts – he went to Sydney through the week and got some further treatement,” Mitchell said.
“Now, he definitely won’t play for a month … but we have no timeline, so realistically he could miss the rest of this season.
“He’s very frustrated.”
Asked if Nash would recover from this injury, Mitchell was adamant that it is “when, not if”.
“The worst-case scenario is he misses the rest of this season.”
Defender Josh Battle is recovering from having his appendix removed last week and also will remain sidelined.
“The boys are all saying he has man flu and he should be fine. But unfortunately he won’t be available either,” Mitchell said.
Impey (hamstring), Amon (knee), Max Beattie (ankle), James Blanck (hamstring) and Finn Maginness will undergo tests at training as they close on returns.
AAP