{"id":432930,"date":"2026-01-23T20:19:31","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T20:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/432930\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T20:19:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T20:19:31","slug":"no-pressure-on-pie-to-return-after-taking-leave-of-absence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/432930\/","title":{"rendered":"No pressure on Pie to return after taking leave of absence"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Bobby Hill remains away from Collingwood, with Nick Daicos saying he can take as much time as he needs\n <\/p>\n

Bobby Hill and Nick Daicos celebrate after the Collingwood’s win over Carlton at the MCG in round 21, 2024. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n

COLLINGWOOD superstar Nick Daicos has reiterated there is no pressure on sidelined forward Bobby Hill to return to the club before he is ready.<\/p>\n

Hill, the 2023 Norm Smith medallist, is on extended leave for the second time in 12 months.<\/p>\n

OPENING ROUND Get your seats to Saints v Magpies<\/a><\/p>\n

The 25-year-old played just 14 games last year due to his personal situation impacting his ability to train.<\/p>\n

Even after he returned to the club in the lead-up to finals, Hill was overlooked for selection as the Magpies bowed out in the preliminary final to eventual premier Brisbane.<\/p>\n

Collingwood released a statement on January 9<\/a> confirming Hill would not return to the club until after the Christmas break.<\/p>\n

Bobby Hill looks on at Collingwood training on December 1, 2025. Picture: Getty Images<\/p>\n

Hill wasn’t with the rest of the squad as they attended the Australian Open on Friday in the Emirates marquee.<\/p>\n

“With Bob, it’s just ensuring that his health and wellbeing is the main priority constantly,” Daicos said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve been checking in with him, and I think he’s going well.<\/p>\n

“Whenever the time’s ready for him and he’s ready to join back in training is a win.<\/p>\n

“We all love seeing him out there doing what he does, and he gives us all so much energy.<\/p>\n

“Hopefully that’s soon, but I don’t think there’s any pressure on him.<\/p>\n

“We just want him, his health and well being to be the main priority.<\/p>\n

“We’ve all been respectful and want Bob to be feeling like he can come to and talk to us.<\/p>\n

“A lot of us have checked in making sure he’s going well, and it seems to be that he is feeling really good.”<\/p>\n

Bobby Hill in action at Collingwood training on September 16, 2025. Picture: Getty Images<\/p>\n

Even if Hill does return to training imminently, the premiership hero will almost certainly be unavailable early in the season.<\/p>\n

But Daicos is confident Collingwood can cover his absence, as well as the departure of fellow forward Brody Mihocek to Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Brody Mihocek after joining Melbourne from Collingwood ahead of the 2026 season. Picture: Melbourne FC<\/p>\n

Collingwood’s best player also shut down familiar criticism of the Magpies’ age profile.<\/p>\n

They will again enter the season with the oldest list in the competition, giving new contracts to the likes of Scott Pendlebury, Steele Sidebottom and Jeremy Howe.<\/p>\n

“We’ll start the season really strong so I’m looking forward to that,” Daicos said.<\/p>\n

“We had the same (predicted for us in) 2025 where they (experts) were saying we’re getting older, but we still made a prelim.”<\/p>\n

Daicos shrugged off any concerns about his fitness, starring during a match simulation session on Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nick Daicos at Collingwood training in January, 2026. Picture: Collingwood FC<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old briefly left the field at training last week with a leg concern but returned later in the session.<\/p>\n

“Feeling really fresh, body feels awesome heading into the practice matches,” Daicos said.<\/p>\n

“The club’s done a great job with managing a few of the boys, and now we’re seeing the benefits of it.<\/p>\n

“It’s quite frustrating the time when you get held back because you want to train, but now the body feels amazing.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bobby Hill remains away from Collingwood, with Nick Daicos saying he can take as much time as he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-432930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}