Hawthorn Captain Emily Bates has been given a timeline of two to four weeks in her bid to return to the field for the Hawls' 2025 finals campaign.
The star midfielder sustained an injury to her SC Joint against Geelong in Round 7 and has been sidelined since, stepping through her rehab process to return to play.
High Performance Manager Aaron Kellett said Hawks fans could see the 30-year-old back playing in as little as a fortnight's time, while also providing an update on Lucy Wales and Elli Symonds, who has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a foot injury.
Emily Bates (SC Joint) - 2-4 weeks
"Emily's tracking beautifully. She's progressed really well through the different stages of her return to play. The surgeon's done a remarkable job of stabilising that joint, so she's full training minus the contact at this point. We're going to scan tomorrow just to get a sense of the healing, which we scheduled to do anyway. At this stage, we anticipate she's going to be fully training, minus the contact, by the end of the week. That last stage of the return to contact bit is the last bit of her reconditioning, but at this stage, we can confidently say she's somewhere between two to four weeks away at this stage."
Lucy Wales (Appendix) - TBC
"It was great to see Lucy back out on the track today. She took a step forward in her running today. It's still a little bit difficult to determine a return to play for her, it's a little bit of a week-to-week proposition given the post-surgical protocols. But she's back to running, we'll aim to get her loading in the gym going pretty soon, get skills back online and pending how the next few weeks go for us as a club, will help to determine a return to play timeline. Still to be confirmed, but some really positive steps forward."
Elli Symonds (Foot) - Season
"Elli presented with some foot pain during the game and after the game on the weekend. She's had a previous injury in the foot, so we scanned that on Monday and that revealed some bone stress in that old injury site. Given the stage of the season we're at, we're going to shut her down for the year, so it's really disappointing for Elli, but we anticipate she's going to come back strongly."
Watch the full Injury Update below
Hawthorn AFLW Injury List - Finals Week 1
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