SWANS physio Matt Cameron has encouraging news on the injuries to Barry Hall and Tadhg Kennelly, while Nick Malceski will be watched closely over the next month after the defender’s return on the weekend.

“Malceski was a little bit leg sore because he cramped a bit, but he pulled up well and he’s set to train tomorrow [Thursday],” said Cameron today.

“We’ve just got to keep our fingers crossed for the remainder of the season. He’s regained his strength he had prior to the injury. All we need to do now is just maintain his strength levels.

“He’ll probably do a little bit extra leg strength work and we’ll have to monitor him over the next month. Usually in the first month they’re more prone to developing other problems so we’ll be watching that fairly closely.”

Malceski, 23, who injured his knee in the pre-season NAB Cup last February, returned to the field just 12 weeks after having revolutionary surgery to replace a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament with a synthetic fibre.

“The main thing is that the surgery has very little of what we term ‘morbidity’. He had the operation but then looked like he’d just had a knee arthroscope. So he didn’t have the pain and swelling you normally have in a knee reconstruction,” explained Cameron.

“We didn’t have to protect his knee like a normal knee 'recon'. So his strength bounced back quickly and we were able to start him running after four or five weeks.”

As for spearhead Barry Hall, Cameron is cautiously optimistic. “He’s coming along well. He’s been in a cast right now for five weeks but will be out of the cast next week.

“A week later, he’s got to have a pin removed and then he’ll be able to start ball work. It depends on how the wrist feels - touching the footy, marking and so on.”

Hall broke his wrist after running into an advertising hoarding at ANZ stadium during the round four clash with West Coast.

“He’s certainly pretty fit from a running point of view. He’s done a fair bit of running. His total body fitness is going to be okay once his suspension finishes," said Cameron.

Meanwhile, Tadhg Kennelly’s prognosis is optimistic with the talented running defender possibly back as early as this week.

“It looks like he hasn’t done as much damage as he did [to his knee] last year. Last year he injured his medial ligament and his knee cap ligament. This time it’s only the knee cap ligament. So it’s a much shorter recovery time. He may even be okay to play next week,” said Cameron.

Kennelly dislocated his knee against the Bombers on Sunday.

“He’s been in the pool this week, he’s started weights on it today so may run him later in the week or hold off till Monday. So he’s starting to put forces back through the knee now and it seems to be holding up well.”

Cameron did not blame the ANZ stadium surface. If anything, he says the pitch may have softened the blow for Kennelly.

“If you see the vision, he landed on his knee with his foot turned out, it wouldn’t have mattered what surface he was on. In fact, the softer surface may’ve helped him.”

Elsewhere on the Swans list, Cameron is monitoring Nic Fosdike’s return and hopes the 28-year-old will be ready for a strong second half of the season.

“Back in January, he suffered a similar injury to what Tadhg had last year. But about four or five weeks after he injured it we realised something was going on inside his knee joint. So we had to do an arthroscope to remove a small piece of cartilage.

“So that meant he was out of action for eight weeks in his pre-season period. And that’s therefore costly to his football and his running.”

Fosdike has played three games in the reserves in recent weeks.

“He’s up to playing 100 minutes now,” said Cameron. “And we want to give him every chance to have a good second half of the season. And his new tattoo is pretty impressive too,” he added with a smile.

Promising Ed Barlow had a back related hamstring injury which kept him out of the Bombers clash but he’s due to train on Thursday, and is expected to be available for the Port Adelaide clash. 

Heath Grundy is set to be up for selection this week after six weeks out with a foot stress fracture, while tough run-with player Jared Crouch is in a reconditioning phase but hasn’t joined team training yet.

Others on injury watch:
Kristin Thornton (Cruciate) Long-term
Brett Meredith (Collar bone) Two weeks
Matt Laidlaw (Hamstring) Two weeks
Daniel O’Keefe (Groin) Undergoing tests
Pat Veszpremi (Groin) Two weeks