Assistant Coach Pau Marti provides the latest on the progress of Reds players currently on the comeback trail from injury.
Assistant Coach Pau Marti provides the latest on the progress of Reds players currently on the comeback trail from injury.
The Reds have a small number of injury concerns leading up to the start of the season, namely Jeronimo Neumann, Bruce Djite and Cassio.
Jeronimo injured his shoulder in an innocuous incident during the warm up at training yesterday, but an x-ray and examination revealed no fracture or major structural problems.
“Jeronimo was assessed yesterday and it was a grade one dislocation of his shoulder, so he will be in a sling and without movement for about one week, and then after this it is hoped he can start training again,” Marti said.
“He will need to do a rehab program to strengthen it up but maybe in about 10 days he will be back, so it-s not a big problem. Initially he was in some pain but once it was attended to by the medical staff he was fine.”
Unfortunately Djite-s prognosis is not as positive. The robust striker suffered significant ligament damage to his ankle during a training session at Thebarton Oval the other week and has been ruled out of being available for the club-s season opener against Perth Glory on October 13.
“Bruce-s problem is more serious. He-s done some ligament damage to his ankle and it-s predicated that he will be out for 6-8 weeks,” Marti said.
“Now is the second week of his recovery and we will need to wait for another two weeks to assess it again and see how long the recovery will be.
“He has been working on his rehabilitation but will need to keep his foot in a moon boot for a bit longer to take the pressure and weight off of his ankle.”
It is a cruel setback for both Jeronimo and Djite, who had been in ominous form during the Reds- early pre season trial games.
Cassio continues to progress with his recovery from a tendon injury sustained to his quad in the initial stages of pre season. The Reds- pocket rocket has been undergoing a modified training program for the past two months and Marti is pleased with where the 33 year old is at in his rehab.
“Cassio is going really well. He is now into week 8 of his tendon injury in his quad,” Marti said.
“He is already starting to get into some ball work, some more intense running, and it-s feeling really good so we-ll see how he is in the next couple of weeks.
“He has been joining in the warm up and some of the passing drills but he still needs to do some extra work but hopefully he will be able to join the main group in the next couple of weeks.”
The rest of the squad is in full training and Marti is confident with where the team is positioned with less than four weeks out from the start of the season.
“There are some players who had slight niggles but they are all fully fit again and we-re looking forward to having the whole group together.”
