RND15 Injury Update: Switkowski, Pearce, Walker

Fremantle High Performance Manager Phil Merriman has confirmed forward Sam Switkowski suffered a low-grade hamstring injury during Saturday night’s win over North Melbourne.

Switkowski sat out the fourth quarter of the game with hamstring awareness.

“He has a low-grade hamstring injury in an area where we do need to be a bit cautious,” Merriman said.

“We’re going to take him through the grades over the next few weeks and see how he responds.”

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Positively, Merriman says Brandon Walker (shoulder), Michael Walters (knee) and Jaeger O’Meara (foot/hamstring) could play their first minutes after extended periods on the sidelines.

Walters and O’Meara were both tests to play last week, but didn’t feature in any football after pulling up sore from main training.

“They (Walters and O’Meara) were very close last week. Given the type of athletes they are, we want to make sure we get them absolutely perfect when we bring them back in,” Merriman said.

“This week, they’ve trained and had a really good session so it will just be a matter of seeing how they recover and assessing their availability after that.”

Walker has made significant strides in his return to football following surgery to repair the shoulder he dislocated against Sydney in Round 2.

“He’s (Walker) been banging into all his teammates to make sure his shoulder is alright and the plan is for him to be playing minutes down at Peel,” Merriman said.

As confirmed by Senior Coach Justin Longmuir in his Tuesday morning media conference, Captain Alex Pearce will remain sidelined due to a stress reaction in his shin.

“Pleasingly, he’s started running again on the Alter-G and he’s awareness-free,” Merriman said.

“We will grade him up on the Alter-G over the next session and hopefully have him running on land by the end of the week.”

Finally, young half-back Cooper Simpson continues to progress through his rehabilitation program after surgery to repair the AC joint injury suffered against Port Adelaide in Round 11.

Merriman says the 20-year-old has commenced on-field running.

“It’s great to see him back out there,” Merriman said.

“We’ve just got to start building him up in regard to his strength around his shoulder and continue his running program.”

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