It’s good news on the injury front this week, with a number of SUNS players expected to make their return to football.

Matt Rosa is on-track to pass his final concussion protocols ahead of the weekend after initially suffering a concussion in round six.

“Matt’s had a couple of interrupted weeks with his concussion, initially suffered a head knock in our North Melbourne game,” GM- Football Operations Marcus Ashcroft told the Optomo Injury Report.

“He’s made great progress the last week, if he gets through all the protocols this week, which we’re expecting him to do, he should play on the weekend.”

After an extended period on the sidelines, draftee Ben Ainsworth has made a full recovery from his corked thigh.

“It’s been a long time for Benny, suffered a really severe cork of the thigh back in round two and unfortunately it kept bleeding over a number of weeks,” Ashcroft said.

“He’s got himself back to full fitness, training really strongly today, again expecting him to do the same thing on Thursday and being available to play on the weekend.”

It’s a similar story for Mitch Hallahan and Rory Thompson, who are both expected to be declared fit by SUNS medical staff.

“Mitch missed three or four weeks now, a long period of time out,” Ashcroft said.

“[Rory] wasn’t quite right last week, but has done a couple of weeks of really solid training and he’ll be expected to play this week.

In news sure to delight SUNS fans, midfield star Gary Ablett appears set to line up for the team come Saturday.

“We were all looking forward to Gary playing and unfortunately on the last training session just didn’t feel right to play with his shoulder,” Ashcroft explained.

“He’s done a lot of work over the weekend to get in a position where he should line up on Saturday afternoon.”

Listed as a tests, there is also a possibility Jesse Lonergan and Jarrad Grant will be available to play, however, both will need to get through Thursday's main training session and satisfy medical staff. 

Positive injury news will continue into next week when the club’s heart-and-soul, Michael Rischitelli, will make his return from an ACL injury sustained almost one year ago.

“He’s done a mountain of work, especially this last month, he’s been in full training with the rest of the group for three-four weeks now,” Ashcroft said.

“Just need to get through the last week- he’s on track to play in our NEAFL team.”

Finally, small forward Callum Ah Chee is also to pull on the red and gold from next week.

“We need him back in the side, he was a valuable contributor for a couple of weeks, kicked multiple goals and really adds some dash and some goal scoring ability to our forward line,” Ashcroft said.


Click here to see the full injury list.