Ryan Houlihan is set to make his long awaited return to football this weekend in the Northern Bullants away game against Frankston on Saturday afternoon. Houlihan has not played a game this season after injuring his calf in January and again on his return in late March in a VFL practice match.

Houlihan is Carlton’s most experienced player in terms of games played for the Club, having played 195 matches for the Blues since making his debut in round 11, 2000 at Visy Park.

“The plan is for Ryan to play around 50% of the game on Saturday. This will be his first match since the start of the season and he has been in full training for a couple of weeks now so he is ready to go. Subject to how he feels following Saturday’s game the plan will be to increase his game time the following week as he builds his game fitness to a level that will have him ready for selection for Carlton in the coming weeks,” said General Manager Football Operations Steven Icke.

Another player who has been out of action after injuring his knee in round 13 last year, Matthew Kreuzer, is expected to return to football with the Northern Bullants in the next two weeks.