St Kilda Captain Nick Riewoldt is a 50-50 chance to face Carlton on Sunday after scans cleared the champion forward of any structural damage to his knee following a collision in the opening minute of Sunday’s loss to Adelaide.
The 33-year-old came from the ground after a collision with ruckman Tom Hickey at an early stoppage, but returned to the field and played out the game despite his movement being clearly hampered.
Saints GM of Football Performance Jamie Cox revealed the club will wait until later in the week before clearing the six-time Trevor Barker Award winner to play this weekend.
“Nick had a scan yesterday and he’s come up pretty well from that,” Cox told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday morning.
“Nick’s knees have been well publicised (over his career), so we won’t know how Nick’s travelling until later in the week, but at the moment he’d be 50-50 to play at the weekend.
“There’s no need for any other intervention. The knee’s sound other than he got a knock really early in the game, which flared it up a bit.”
Cox dismissed any concerns regarding the state of Riewoldt’s knee prior to the game on the weekend, pointing the finger at the skippers form across the opening half of the season.
“Until that knock (his knee was) as good as gold. He had no awareness whatsoever which I think has been evidenced by the way he’s been playing – he’s been in great form – he hasn’t been inconvenienced at all,” Cox said.
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"Nick is 50/50 to play on the weekend. No structural damage. We'll find out later in the week." Jamie Cox pic.twitter.com/i4vk4c59wu
— St Kilda FC (@stkildafc) June 7, 2016