HAWTHORN spearhead Lance Franklin won’t play against Geelong at the MCG on Friday night.
The Coleman Medal leader is set to miss his fourth straight match after straining his hamstring against Greater Western Sydney in Round 15.
Senior Coach Alastair Clarkson confirmed Franklin wouldn’t play against Geelong, after missing training with his teammates at the Ricoh Centre on Friday.
“He won’t play this week,” Clarkson said.
“He’s nearly there but we just want to make sure he’s completely over this little niggle.”
Clarkson is condifent though, that his star full forward will be fit to play against Port Adelaide in Tasmania next week.
“We think it will probably be next week if all goes well,” he said.
Franklin trained this week in an endeavor to return for the Hawks’ vital clash with Geelong, but didn’t feel “as comfortbale” as the Hawthorn medical staff would have liked to clear him to play.
“He still trained as we indicated (he would) early this week,” Clarkson said.
“He did some running this morning but he needed to have done everything as well as he possibly could do to get himself up.
“We just thought he wasn’t as comfortable as perhaps what we would have liked him to have been to get himself up for this week.”
Kate Salemme is a member of Hawthorn Football Club’s Digital media team reporting exclusively for hawthornfc.com.au from the Ricoh Centre.
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