ONE MORE training session will decide whether or not Fremantle's Des Headland plays again this season as he battles a knee injury.
Headland has not played since round four against Richmond due to the knee problem and despite the Dockers initially thinking it was not too serious, he has not been able to train pain-free since and it could keep him out for the rest of 2008.
Headland will attempt to train again on Thursday morning and how he pulls up on Friday will determine his fate. If it pulls up sore and it jars again, he will require surgery and the best case scenario could see him back for the last couple of games, but more likely not at all this season.
Coach Mark Harvey was not overly confident that Headland would get through without problems, but is holding out hope.
"We are about to find out whether or not Des will play again this year or not. The way it's looking he could miss a fair chunk of the year, but we have to wait and see. It's bone bruising and there might be a bit more than that. It's a pretty decent injury," Harvey said.
"We will see how Des trains tomorrow and then that will decide his fate. He seems like he is right when he's out there, but after it he jars up.
"He gets sore the next day, so we need to find out the full extent of the problem. We will find that out tomorrow and see if it is sore after training. If it is, then we are in trouble. By the sounds of it, he will miss at least a couple of months if it's still sore. Tomorrow will be his last hurrah to see if he can run and train."
As well as Headland, Fremantle was missing key players Roger Hayden, Antoni Grover (injured) and Josh Carr through suspension for Sunday's game, which Harvey believes should be talked about more when looking at the performance.
Young players like Rhys Palmer are also tiring and will welcome the break this weekend.
"Six of our top 10 players are out injured and that puts enormous stress on the whole list. With that comes the opportunity to play younger players and that's what we are doing," he said.
"It’s not something you usually want to do early in the season, but it has been forced upon us and we will keep finding out more about the playing group. Rhys was starting to show some signs of getting tired and he needs the break. People said I should have played him in round one, but if I did he might not have played last week that's how tired he was getting."
Chris Tarrant returned after two games in the WAFL with East Perth and had a good first half and won't play this weekend in the WAFL. Heath Black, Andrew Foster, Brock O'Brien, Mark Johnson, Kepler Bradley, Adam Campbell, Matt Carr, Marcus Drum, Paul Duffield, Clayton Hinkley, Chris Mayne, Ryan Murphy, Brett Peake and Robert Warnock most likely will, though.
"Tarrant's first half was good on Sunday after two weeks in the WAFL. He won't be playing this weekend. Heath will again play in the WAFL," he said.
"Not every player has had the three days off. Eight to 10 of them are still training that played on Sunday and will play this weekend, it's called monitoring their loads. Guys that haven’t had a lot of games with us, Foster, O'Brien and Johnson, will be among those."