GWS vice-captain Stephen Coniglio has avoided surgery on a dislocated finger and is likely to play in Saturday’s AFL match against St Kilda.
The midfield dynamo led the club to a win in last weekend’s Sydney derby in the absence of injured co-captains Phil Davis and Callan Ward but suffered a finger injury during the game.
He played out the match with a protective glove before it was put back in place.
“We have avoided surgery which is fantastic, probably more likely to play than not which is really pleasing,” Giants coach Leon Cameron told reporters on Tuesday.
“It’s still obviously swollen up but he’s a tough player… but he’s still got to get through the main (training) session tomorrow and see how he pulls up.
“Clearly lots of players just like to play and they can play through some sort of pain barrier but we’ve got to make sure that he’s functioning right, that he can handle the ball fine and he’s ready to go and if that’s all ticked off then he’ll play on Saturday.”
Cameron was confident the 25-year-old Coniglio, who is out of contract at the end of the season, will ultimately re-sign but hinted it could be a long process.
“There are two parts to a negotiation; there’s the club who want to do it ASAP and then there’s the player and the manager that will take there time.
“Normally you get a happy medium in between and we’ve seemed to do that over the last three or four years, and I don’t see that not happening again in the next month or two.”
Davis, who failed to get over the line for the derby after an ankle injury, is firming for a return against the Saints in Canberra.
“(He’s) probably 70-30. We’ll asses him tomorrow, but he made some really good ground,” Cameron said.
“We were thinking Friday he was going to get there, Saturday he pulled up a little bit sore, so that’s why we pulled him out Saturday night.”
Cameron said GWS weren’t buoyed by St Kilda’s 29-point loss to Adelaide on the weekend, citing the closeness of the competition so far this season.
“It’s so tight, you can’t take any quarter, any five minute period for granted and we won’t be doing that this weekend,” he said.