This Saturday will mark 337 days since Michael Rischitelli last pulled on the red and gold.

Regarded as the heart and soul of the club, Rischitelli faced a long and gruelling road to recovery after tearing his ACL in round 16, 2016 against the Brisbane Lions.

The then 30-year old was visibly in excruciating pain as the injury took hold almost 12 months ago.

GM Football Operations, Marcus Ashcroft, confirmed to the Optomo Injury Report Rischitelli would line-up for the SUNS NEAFL team to face the Brisbane Lions on Saturday. 

“It’s a fantastic story isn’t it- Michael has been out almost 12 months,” Ashcroft said.  

“For him to get back and do all the work he did, it’s great reward for him.

“Hopefully it’s the first game on the way to playing some senior footy sooner rather than later.

“First game in the reserves against the Lions up in Brisbane, hopefully he gets through unscathed and one step closer to playing senior footy.” 

The positive news continues, with young forward Callum Ah Chee having worked his way back into selection contention after suffering a back injury.

“Cal’s done some good work over the last few weeks to get himself to a position to be available for selection,” Ashcroft said.

“He’s trained all last week, will train again today [Tuesday] and Thursday.

“The expectation is that if he gets through those two sessions then he’ll be available for selection on Saturday.”

Rory Thompson, Ben Ainsworth, Jarrad Grant, Mitch Hallahan and Jesse Lonergan were all declared fit last week and have come through the NEAFL match unscathed.  

“All good news- they got through unscathed and again one step closer to hopefully getting back into the senior team,” Ashcroft said.

“Our injury list is very small at the moment, we’ve been very luck to have 20 players play in our reserves team, which I thinks an all time high.

“We’ll have similar numbers running around our reserves team this weekend against the Lions in Brisbane.”

Sam Day, who suffered a season ending knee injury during a pre-season match, is the only SUNS player on the Injury List.