CARLTON will continue to take a cautious approach to the return of Sam Walsh, despite expectations the superstar midfielder will reintegrate back into full training before round one following off-season surgery on his troublesome back.
Walsh underwent a micro-discectomy procedure just before Christmas to repair a back injury that bothered him during the latter stages of last year, with the surgery completed to remove a bulging disc portion that would relieve pressure on a nerve.
The Blues immediately ruled Walsh out for the first month of the season, but have been impressed with the 22-year-old's recovery as he continues to take significant strides towards an earlier-than-expected return.
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Carlton coach Michael Voss revealed this week the club expects Walsh to begin main training ahead of the side's round one clash against Richmond on March 16, but reiterated a timetable for his return hadn't yet changed.
"I would have thought it (full training) would be close to round one," Voss told AFL.com.au.
"It'll be a couple of weeks' time. He'll slowly integrate over the next couple of weeks, so we'll start to see him integrate back into skills. But until he gets session after session and he can back it up, that'll give us a better idea on approximately where he's going to be."
Walsh was forced to miss Carlton's heartbreaking round 23 loss to Collingwood last year due to his back injury, where the Blues fell by one solitary point to narrowly miss out on breaking their long-standing finals drought.
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The club's 2021 best-and-fairest winner, and its former All-Australian, then underwent surgery to repair the issue a couple of months later but has already begun doing light drills at training as he nears the end of his rehab period.
"I think he's three quarters of the way through it or thereabouts," Voss said.
"We still are at that stage where while he's progressing quite well, we still think that the timeline hasn't really changed for us. We'll just wait to see where he's at come round one, then we can make some better decisions there.
"The reason why we're a little bit more hesitant is because until he starts joining in with the footy program and being a bit more consistent, that tells you a little bit about where he's got to go. That gives you much better feedback than just guessing. We have been a bit slower to make a call on that, but it's for a very good reason why we have."
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Sam Docherty was moved into the midfield late last year as the club's onball injuries began to pile up, and had continued in his new role this summer having been identified as a potential Walsh replacement.
Further injuries to defensive duo Zac Williams (knee) and Jordan Boyd (foot) could see Docherty return to his customary position across half-back. However, the Blues are yet to decide on the 29-year-old's full-time role this season.
"He'll probably play a bit of both," Voss said.
"Despite the chatter around where he will or won't play, I just think we found something at the back-end of last year that was worthwhile to continue to pursue. What that gave us was potentially greater flexibility, or a different look, on the way that we structured up.
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"That was probably forced upon us. It's interesting, when you get something forced upon you then it forces creativity and a different way of thinking. We had to think differently and fortunately we found out something different about a player, but also maybe about our team.
"If we need to be able to do that, then we can go with it. But we haven't sat down as a coaching group and said, 'He will play in this position'. I think the benefit with 'Doc' right now is that we've got a choice of both. If it's needed, he'll play in both."