Swans Injury Update: McVeigh, Aliir set to return, Tippett two weeks away

Sydney will be spoiled for choice on Thursday afternoon with McVeigh and Aliir both putting their hands up to return.

Aliir, who narrowly missed out on selection last week, has been deemed fully fit and is expected to be available for Melbourne on Friday night, or the NEAFL on Saturday.

The 22-year-old was still feeling the effects of a tweaked medial ligament, suffered in the round 12 clash against Aspley, as was withdrawn as a precaution.

Despite playing just three games this season, and missing the Bombers clash, the rebounding defender donned the pink vest in the NEAFL on Friday against Sydney Uni.

"It's one of the initiatives we've used a number of times with returning players or injured players, he was able to get eight or nine kilometres of cruise running which is great conditioning given the seniors and reserves played on the same day,” said Sydney Swans Head of Football Tom Harley in this week’s HCF Injury Update.

"It was a real line-ball call with him last week, we just ran out of time towards the end of the week to put his hand up, so he'll be right this week."

Meanwhile, former captain McVeigh is in the mix after a successful comeback from injury, playing three quarters in the same NEAFL clash.

The 32-year-old collected 19 disposals and kicked two goals in the Swans' curtain-raiser win, his first hit out since injuring his hamstring in round 8.

The 289 game veteran will be heavily monitored on Wednesday and Thursday and will be given every opportunity to prove his fitness, with the decision to made during Thursday's match committee.

"Jarrad looked really good in the NEAFL," Harley said.

"He was modified in that time in the sense he wore a GPS unit and we made sure he hit the marks he needed with speed and total distance, so that was really positive.

"He's progressed through the weekend, recovered well and he'll train again this week and be available again, which is terrific news."

Kurt Tippett's return to football has hit the brakes again, as he could spend another fortnight on the sidelines while struggling to overcome his troublesome ankle.

First suffered against the Western Bulldogs in round 2, Tom Harley last week said that Kurt has been carrying it since.

Despite the medicos best work, they've had to pull back on the 30-year-olds rehab work, to give the injury time to fully heal, before building the muscles strength back up.

"He's been getting treatment around the clock," Harley said in this week's HCF Injury Update.

"It's a bit like Kieren Jack earlier in the year with his hip when (he) needed to take some time off to recover to then get the strength right, so (Kurt's) in the strength-and-starting-to-run phase in the back end of this week.

"He won't play this weekend, any grade, then we'll reassess again on Monday as he builds up his training and running. We've got his down for 1-2 weeks which is disappointing for Kurt, we'd love to see him out there as soon as possible."

Speedster Harry Cunningham is recovering well from his partial lisfranc tear and is on track for a round 16 return.

"It's up to six weeks now, our initial prognosis was four-to-eight, so he's tracking well in the sense he's running fast in a straight line,"

"He's still got a bit of awareness on changing direction, so we're mindful and respectful of that."

In fantastic news for the club, Alex Johnson donned the pink vest in the NEAFL alongside Aliir on Friday night, completing the game injury free.

It's a step in recovery for Alex and hopefully he'll return to NEAFL football before the season is over, fingers crossed!

Aliir Aliir Knee Test
Kurt Tippett Ankle 2 Week
Harry Cunningham Foot 3 Weeks
Darcy Cameron Shoulder Season
Alex Johnson Knee Indefinite

Sydney Swans injury list.

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Justin Mitchell

Justin is a passionate AFL and Sydney Swans supporter, and football blogger since 2016. All articles are of his own opinion. You can reach him by twitter and Facebook at @theswansblog

Melbourne, Australia https://theswansblog.com

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