Mercurial forward Josh Rachele will return to the Adelaide Crows line-up for Friday night’s do-or-die AFL semifinal against Hawthorn at Adelaide Oval.
Rachele has been sidelined for more than two months with a knee injury.
Crows coach Matthew Nicks said the 22-year-old’s return would be a boost for his side, as it looked to bounce back from its qualifying final loss to Collingwood and the continued absence of suspended star Izak Rankine.
“Josh’s weapon is his energy, and what that does to help the guys around him,” Nicks said.
“That energy will be important and his execution, it’s going to be a tough ask with the speed of the game and things, being out of footy for that amount of time.
“It’s hard to hit the ground running straight away.”
Rachele has been sidelined for more than two months with a knee injury. (Getty Images: Mark Brake)
Rachele tore the posterior capsular in his left knee along with suffering a bone compression injury during the Crows’ round 17 win over Melbourne.
Nicks said Rachele had been diligent during his recovery.
“We won’t be rolling the dice, the question is he ready to go, and yeah he’s ready to go,” Nicks said.
“Ten weeks of hard work and he should get the reward for that.
“We do because he’s ready and he trained really well.”
Rachele has kicked 25 goals from 13 games during his injury-interrupted 2025 season.
Last month, he was named in the AFL Players’ Association’s 22Under22 team for the third time.
ABC Sport is live blogging every round of the AFL and NRL seasons in 2025.