Lewis Roberts-Thomson, aka “the hyphen”, is back in action after quietly slipping onto the senior list last week following an extended stint in the footballing wilderness.
The lengthy rehabilitation process is now over for LRT and last weekend he was out on the SCG playing in the Swans reserves win over the Tuggeranong Hawks in the AFL Canberra competition.
Swans reserve grade coach Brett Allison was pleased with the return of LRT but tempered his return suggesting the athletic defender was still a few weeks off being ready for the top league.
“LRT went very well considering he’s been out of the game for eight months,” Allison said.
“He got around 60 minutes of game time with the majority of that at centre half-back, the last 15 minutes he played full forward.
“Considering he’s been out for so long I thought LRT moved particularly well, you certainly wouldn’t have thought he’d not played since last September, he was hard at it and was his usual self in one-on-one contests.
“But while he went well enough in the reserves it will still be a few weeks before you would think he’d be ready for the seniors, probably the week after the bye I’d say.”
Roberts-Thomson suffered ligament damage in his left foot late last season and earlier this year was diagnosed with stress fractures in the same foot.
He has been back on the training track running for around six weeks and with some match practice is soon expected to be pushing for senior selection.
Only problem on the match practice front is that the reserve grade side don’t play again until 23 June when they take on Ainslie.
This week the Swans have the designated bye and the week after is the AFL Canberra mid-season bye.
With Lewis Roberts-Thomson coming back onto the Senior List Kieren Jack has been relegated back to the Rookie List.