HAWTHORN star Lance Franklin will need to prove his fitness at training on Thursday before the Club makes a call on whether he’s available for selection this week.
The Hawks star was a late withdrawal from last Saturday’s win over Port Adelaide with knee soreness and didn’t travel with the team despite being named in the selected side on Thursday night.
On Monday, Franklin was confident of returning for Saturday’s Round 17 clash against the Bulldogs at Aurora Stadium, but the Club is taking a wait and see approach to the superstar forward.
Head of Coaching and Development, Chris Fagan says while Franklin is optimistic, he’ll need to pass a fitness test before he’s declared available for selection.
“He’s really optimistic that he’s going to be okay for this weekend so we’ll see how he performs at training on Thursday and hopefully he’ll play this weekend,” he told hawthornfc.com.au
“He pulled up sore at training last week on Tuesday and didn’t really improve enough to play so we made the decision to leave him out.”
Franklin had scans on his sore knee on Monday and was confident of making a return against the Bulldogs.
“Yeah all good," Franklin said outside a Melbourne scanning clinic on Monday.
"Yeah they've come up all right, just a sore knee.
"I'll play this week, yep."
The Hawks will be without utility Shaun Burgoyne for the next two matches through suspension but Cyril Rioli (ankle) and Ben Stratton (concussion) are expected to make the trip to Tasmania.
