So grim is Collingwood’s injury situation that even its fitness staff is wounded!
Magpies coach Craig McRae has revealed the club’s rehab manager Dean Filopoulos is in a moon boot with a stress fracture in his foot due to a big workload.
In the smiling McRae’s own words, sometimes “you have to laugh.”
The Collingwood coach began on SEN: “This is a true story.
“‘Deano’ does our rehab, unbelievable at what he does, gets the guys fit back and well. We like to think he’s the industry best.
“He’s worked that hard he’s got a stress fracture in his foot — he’s in a boot! Even our rehab coordinator is injured.”
The reigning premiers are currently grappling with a lengthy injury list of stars including Jordan De Goey, Scott Pendlebury and Brody Mihocek, with the banged up Pies limping towards their bye in a fortnight’s time.
It’s included constant forced changes to McRae’s best 23 over the last month, though Collingwood is set to be boosted by the returns of Reef McInnes and Will Hoskin-Elliott for Monday’s King’s Birthday blockbuster clash with Melbourne.
McRae forecasted “light at the end of the tunnel,” with the “five or six” key Magpies expected to return after their bye.
“The challenge then is, if you get five or six back all at once, how do you manage all that?,” McRae noted.
“Of course, there’s a lot to play out before then with (potential) more injuries or whatever it looks like.
“It’s a challenging part. Last year we had a good run with this, I think we had the least changes week to week of anyone in the competition.
“This year it’s a different story, we have to do it a different way.
“We’re learning a lot about ourselves, but also finding some things we probably didn’t know about ourselves too, some really nice players have shown they can play at the level.”
The Magpies coach also cleared the air on how the club prioritises family first in allowing Oleg Markov to miss the Round 11 draw with Fremantle to attend his brother-in-law’s wedding.
“(We say): ‘Family first mate, if you think this is important to you, you do it’,” McRae added.
“I think that stuff pays you back. We talk about winning on the scoreboard, we’ll be criticised or rewarded … that scoreboard is our feedback and the industry wants us to win.
“But I and we at Collingwood want to win at all levels, so we have better husbands, better fathers, so Oleg becomes a better brother for his brother-in-law, whatever it looks like.
“There’s always a line, performance versus family, I get that, but when there is an easy choice, we’re choosing family.”
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