Charlie Curnow is out, and Mitch McGovern remains in significant doubt for Carlton’s potentially season-deciding game against St Kilda.
In a huge blow to the Blues’ finals hopes, back-to-back Coleman medallist Curnow was ruled out on Friday, leaving the club with another makeshift forward line against one of the most miserly defences in the league.
Charlie Curnow is out for a second game with his ankle injury.Credit: Fox Footy
Still battling the ankle injury that sidelined him from the club’s stirring win against West Coast, Curnow pulled up sore from training this week.
The Blues are confident Curnow would be available for the first final in a fortnight’s time, should the club qualify, but are not prepared to risk him breaking down and leaving them a player short.
With Harry McKay also unavailable, Curnow’s absence means defender Brodie Kemp will again be the main target in attack after starring with four goals in his new role. It is the second game Curnow has missed with the injury, which first flared at the start of July.
“It’s something that he’s obviously had to manage for a little while,” Blues coach Michael Voss said.
“We just need to give it that little extra time so it can settle down a little bit more but that [finals] will be three, four weeks after his last incident.”
“So I feel pretty confident that, the best-case scenario, getting through and playing, that he’ll be fit and available.”
McGovern did not start training with the rest of his teammates on Friday morning, raising further doubt over his fitness after experiencing hamstring tightness against the Eagles, though Voss said he did not need to take part in the whole session to play.
“We’ll give him every opportunity to be able to get up so his schedule will run a little bit different to everyone else,” Voss said.
Rebounding defender Adam Saad has been declared a certain starter, just two weeks after a hamstring issue against Hawthorn.
Though such injuries usually require a minimum of three weeks to recover from, Voss was adamant the Blues were not taking a risk with Saad, whose strain Voss said was “very low grade”.
“If we really pushed, we probably could have done something last week, but obviously, we chose not to do that, given the flight over to Perth as well as a factor,” Voss said.
“He came pretty close last week, which he gives us a fair bit of confidence that he’s going to be right this week.”
Adam Saad will return for the Blues.Credit: AFL Photos
Voss was extremely confident small forward Corey Durdin would line up despite dislocating his shoulder against the Eagles, but would need to break through the pain barrier.
“We have to probably accept there is an element of risk,” Voss said. “But he seems pretty confident.”
Voss tempered expectations over a possible finals return for Sam Docherty, who underwent a knee reconstruction after the opening round.
“There’s just so many factors that go into that decision and we’ll make sure that everyone knows that all those variables will be considered very, very seriously,” Voss said. “It won’t be just sort of something that we roll out.
“He’s been part of the lengthy rehab program, and we need to respect that. But all those sort of risks, if you want to call it, will be managed both for him and the team, and we’ll go from there.
“As you can imagine, probably the next what 48 hours, 72 hours, probably more what I’m concentrating on, more so than what happens next week.”
