The Sydney Swans' back half will be spoilt for choice as two defenders put their hands up for senior recalls after progressing well from respective injury stints.
Aliir Aliir, who narrowly missed out on selection last week, has been deemed fully fit and available for selection for either Friday night's AFL clash with Melbourne or Saturday's NEAFL match in Canberra.
The 22-year-old, who's managed three senior games in 2017, was still feeling the effects of his tweaked medial ligament (suffered in the NEAFL Swans' Round 12 encounter with Aspley) as late as last Thursday, so was taken off the whiteboard as a precaution.
Instead, the football department had Aliir don the pink and be NEAFL coach Rhyce Shaw's runner in Friday's clash with Sydney Uni with the aim of getting more miles into his legs and fast track his return.
"It's one of the initiatives we've used a number of times with returning players or injured players, he was able to get eight or nine kilometres of cruise running which is great conditioning given the seniors and reserves played on the same day,” said Sydney Swans Head of Football Tom Harley in this week’s HCF Injury Update.
"It was a real line-ball call with him last week, we just ran out of time towards the end of the week to put his hand up, so he'll be right this week."
Meanwhile, veteran Jarrad McVeigh is in the mix following a successful and trouble-free comeback game through the reserves on Friday.
McVeigh collected 19 disposals and kicked two goals in the NEAFL Swans' big win over Sydney Uni in the curtain-raiser at the SCG, in what was his first run since straining a calf in Round 8.
The 32-year-old will be given the chance to prove his fitness further at training on Wednesday, where the former co-captain will be monitored closely.
The outcome of the training session will determine whether the 289-gamer is right to board the plane to Melbourne for Friday night's AFL clash with the Demons or lace up again for the NEAFL Swans.
Tom Harley says that decision will be made at Thursday's Match Committee when all the facts are in front of them.
"Jarrad looked really good in the NEAFL," Harley said.
"He was modified in that time in the sense he wore a GPS unit and we made sure he hit the marks he needed with speed and total distance, so that was really positive.
"He's progressed through the weekend, recovered well and he'll train again this week and be available again, which is terrific news."
In other injury news, Kurt Tippett could spend up to another fortnight on the sidelines as the ruckman makes slow progress on his injured ankle.
Much in the same vein as what Kieren Jack did to recover from his troublesome hip injury, the medicos have decided to also err on the side of caution and pull back on Tippett's rehab to give his ankle time to recover before rebuilding the strength back.
Harry Cunningham is also at least a week away as the midfielder continues his comeback from his torn LinsFranc ligament suffered in Round 8.
He's back running now with the aim of being available for selection when Sydney hosts the Gold Coast in next weekend's AFL-NEAFL double-header at the SCG.
