DIRECTOR of High Performance Andrew Russell provided an update on eight injured Blues leading into the final round of the 2021 home-and-away season.

Patrick Cripps (quad): ’Crippa’ pulled up tight from last Thursday’s training and he didn’t quite get up for the game, which was unfortunate. He’s settling down well and we’ll test him on Thursday: he’s a strong chance to play this week.

Jack Martin (hamstring): He had some low-level tightness last week that didn’t settle. He’s got a low-grade hamstring, so he’ll miss this week.

Zac Williams (hamstring): Zac got a bit tight last week. He’s got some scar tissue there that he stirred up: it was a pretty low-level irritation, but just enough to keep him out for this week.

Harry McKay (shoulder): Harry had a high-grade AC joint injury which needed surgery. He won’t run for around four weeks and then we’ll get him back training. He’ll have a full pre-season, which is fantastic for him.

Jack Silvagni (hip): Jack Silvagni has had a long-standing hip injury. It got a little bit worse in the second half of this year. We knew we were managing that. We took the chance to do that late in the year to give him every chance to get up and get a big pre-season in. He had that on Monday. He’s also going to have a shoulder procedure to do some work on that shoulder that he’s had issues with this year as we’ve seen. Both those issues will mean he’ll build up in December and we should see him out in full training doing skills in January.

Liam Jones (knee): ‘Jonesy’ has got a fracture to his patella from the big knock he got in the game. He’ll be off his legs for the next 6-8 weeks before we get him back running. He should be in full training in December.

Caleb Marchbank/David Cuningham (knee): Both ‘Cunners’ and ‘Marchy’ are progressing really well. Marchbank has been running for the last two weeks and Cuningham starts this week. They’re over that initial settling down period, we’re in a strength­­ening phase. We’re very close to start really getting them conditioned and doing a high-end run block. They’re going to get six months of really high-level training into their bodies.