Injured Crows leader a long-shot to return

Adelaide captain Nathan van Berlo is accelerating his desperate bid to play again, but remains unlikely to feature in this AFL season.

Van Berlo ruptured an Achilles tendon when a sled carrying weights crashed into him at pre-season training in mid-January.

The Crows skipper has started running again but remains a long-shot to play this year, Adelaide assistant coach Mark Bickley says.

“Nathan, being the professional he is, he’s training hard and wanting to get back because if we do make finals, he wants to give himself an opportunity,” Bickley told reporters on Wednesday.

“But you would have to say the odds are slim at this stage.

“A ruptured Achilles is really major. There’s a whole lot of things, there’s match fitness, the conditioning of your legs – you’re deconditioned totally when you can’t walk for whatever it was, probably three or four months.

“There is a whole range of issues, not to mention touch and game sense.”

Adelaide, in 10th spot with six games remaining, had sorely missed van Berlo’s leadership and playing smarts, Bickley said.

“The leadership aspect of it, that role that he plays is crucial,” he said.

“We have both (Rory) Sloane and (Patrick) Dangerfield step into that role and whilst they have been admirable, they are still learning the caper.

“Nathan’s leadership experience is undoubted. But certainly there’s some footy stuff as well … he’s our most elite runner and whilst he does some tagging jobs, he still does carry the ball as well and gives us that running capacity.

“That is probably an area, particularly early in the year, that we missed.”

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