Star wingman Dale Thomas is a chance to return from an ankle injury in the VFL this Saturday.

Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley said that Thomas trained well during the team’s main training session on Tuesday and is set to put his hand up to play his first game of any kind since 11 May.

“He was excellent today. The likelihood is that he’ll play VFL this week,” said Buckley.

“All tests to this point have him thereabouts.”

Buckley said that Thomas is “extremely fit” and that his agility hasn’t been affected by the surgery he underwent earlier this year.
Collingwood’s VFL team will play Sandringham at Trevor Barker Beach Oval on Saturday.

Another player who has been in and out of the medical room this season is Darren Jolly.

The ruckman hasn’t played for a fortnight but is “making a run at playing this week,” according to Buckley, who said that Jolly, like Thomas, “trained really well” on Tuesday morning.

On Alan Didak, Buckley said that the much-loved veteran is currently in Adelaide as he tends to an unwell friend.

“He asked for personal leave and we granted that late last week. He’ll be back at training on Thursday and will look to play (VFL) this week.”

“He played a couple of really good VFL matches (prior to heading to Adelaide) so he’s thereabouts. He’ll look to hit the ground running next week and we’ll see where we go from there.”

Buckley also had praise for youngster Brodie Grundy who has added significantly to Collingwood’s ruck battery in the past three weeks.

“We expect our big units to be animals and have a bit of white line fever.

“He’s a different cat off the field but on it he’s a massive competitor.”

The coach refused to commit to the usage of any particular ruckmen for the remainder of the year and said that the match committee will make its decision on a “horses for courses” basis.