MELBOURNE forward Jesse Hogan remains at least eight weeks away from returning to football.
He suffered a back injury in the NAB Challenge series when Melbourne played Geelong in Alice Springs and has not played since.
Because of the nature of his injury, the club was initially reluctant to put a date on when Hogan would return.
Unfortunately for the player and club it is taking longer than hoped, as Hogan has not responded to the treatment and they are now taking a more conservative approach.
The club tried more than once during the rehab to give the youngster a week's rest before he resumed running but it did not seem to help, as the symptoms returned
As a result, on the advice of specialists, a different approach is now being taken with the club reluctant to increase his training loads until he has an extended period without pain or symptoms.
"He hasn't run for a week now. We're not going to push him now. We'll probably leave it for another week or so before he runs again, which obviously means it's going to be a lot longer than initially thought," Roos said.
He said that it would be two or three weeks before Hogan resumed running and another five or six week delay after that.
"It was just one of those injuries. We were going to see how it reacted to activity and it hasn't reacted that well," Roos said.
Hogan remains contracted to the Demons until the end of 2015 and he has resisted overtures to date to extend his contract beyond that time. He has said he is happy at Melbourne but wants to play senior footy before he even thinks about entering such negotiations.
Roos said Hogan – who is yet to play a senior game – was a long-term player for Melbourne, which was why they were treating him with caution.
The club is also considering placing him on the long-term injury list.
