PORT Adelaide may have dodged a bullet with the club hopeful star forward Charlie Dixon will avoid ankle surgery and be available for the trip to Brisbane in round one.
The 31-year-old sent a scare through the Power camp earlier this month when he tore ligaments in his troublesome ankle, after landing awkwardly on a teammate's foot during a marking contest at training.
New defence coach Chad Cornes, who was promoted from a development role over the off-season as part of a shuffling of roles in Ken Hinkley's coaching department, said Dixon could return to full fitness within a month if everything goes to plan.
PLAY AFL FANTASY Pick your team NOW
"I think the news is getting more and more positive day in, day out. It looks like surgery – at this stage – won't be required," Cornes told reporters via Zoom on Monday morning.
"When he initially did it, it looked quite serious; he was in a lot of pain and the talk around it was he would require surgery and be out for up to three months. That was a little frightening to start with, but it's getting better and better every day.
"The swelling has gone down and he is actually walking around on it pain free at the moment. If all that continues and he can avoid surgery and be out on the track, I would think around the four-week mark.
"We know how important he is to the way we play. He is a great on-field leader, the boys rally around him and he does inspire them. For it to turn out the way it has, everyone did breathe a sigh of relief."
The 2020 Therabody AFL All-Australian was plagued by ankle issues during his five seasons at the Gold Coast Suns – never managing more than 16 appearances in a season – before he suffered a horrific ankle and leg injury in 2018, which limited him to only nine games the following season.
Livewire forward Orazio Fantasia is facing a race against the clock to be fit in time for the season-opener against the Lions at the Gabba on March 19.
The 26-year-old managed 15 appearances in his first season at Alberton after crossing from Essendon at the end of 2020, but Fantasia is dealing with ongoing issues with his knees.
Fantasia underwent surgery on his left knee during the off-season and is set to go under the knife to improve his right knee, although he won't be able to get surgery for at least another week due to restrictions on elective surgery in South Australia in response to the pandemic.
"We obviously know that's not an option until around Feb 6 or 7. His plan is to go for a light jog on Wednesday, which is a good sign," Cornes said.
"He's working really hard down in the gym at the moment building the quad strength up. If he gets through that on-field jog on Wednesday, we'll look to progress things from there.
"Both knees were looking really good when we returned from the long break in November. He just had a minor flare up during training. The other knee has recovered really well, but this one isn’t at the level that you would hope after what he went through in the off-season. It's not disastrous at this stage. He'll look to run on Wednesday and we'll know more after that."
With just 47 days between now and the start of the 2022 season, Fantasia might run out of time to prove his fitness ahead of the trip to Queensland.