Hawthorn gun Will Day will need to get through the VFL on managed minutes before he makes his long-awaited AFL return.
Day has had a luckless run with injury, playing just six games across the past two seasons.
The latest setback, a shoulder concern sustained in pre-season, has kept Day from Hawthorn’s strong start but he trained well on Thursday and will be available in five weeks.
Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell is buoyed by Day’s progress but is committed to taking the conservative approach.
“I think he’ll come back through the VFL. I think he’ll play reasonably limited game time in his first game back whenever that is, I couldn’t put an exact date on it,” he said.
“When he gets back, I suspect he will play at least one game with limited game time through the VFL and we’ll make assessments from there.
“He’s still a period away, even though, I must admit I watch him train and am thinking, ‘Are you sure it has to be that long?’
“But you just trust the medical staff, they do a great job for us. I am looking forward to getting him back but it won’t be soon.”
Day was doing some light tackling at training on Thursday morning, as his Hawthorn teammates prepared for Port Adelaide on Saturday at Marvel Stadium.
Mitchell rejects the need for Day to make any technical adjustments to prevent injury, insisting the emphasis on tackling is just contact conditioning.
“The majority of his injuries haven’t been impact, he’s obviously had the stuff with his feet which have been the majority of his stuff,” he said.
“He’s only had the two physical hit injuries, one was from Jai Newcombe of all people, and then the one at training.
“So technique wise he’s quite good, I think as they build back the training, you obviously build them back physically with running, weights, but you also have to build back contact.
“They’ll build back his contract, he’ll do controlled tackling (because) the worst thing you can do is no tackling and then ‘OK, play footy’
“It’s not that we’re changing his technique too much, it’s just that we’re slowly getting him used to contact before he comes back.”
Originally published as Hawthorn gun Will Day is striding towards a return – but there’s a catch