St Kilda Captain Jarryn Geary says Paddy McCartin has dealt with his latest obstacle well and should take confidence from his training block prior to the injury.
McCartin, 22, was flying at the start of the pre-season, recording a significant personal best in the 3km time-trial, before rolling his ankle a fortnight ago.
The 2014 No. 1 pick has endured a frustrating few years with concussion issues, a broken collarbone and now an ankle injury halting his progress.
“That’s just the life of a professional athlete; you roll with the punches,” Geary said at a press conference at Linen House Centre.
“Paddy should take some confidence from the fact he was in really good shape before he had his little hiccup.
“The beauty about Paddy is before he got injured he had a really good training block and at the end of the
“He’s really positive and he’s still doing a lot of stuff off the track. He’s in a really good headspace at the moment.”
Geary, who took over the captaincy reins from Nick Riewoldt at the start of the year, says the first phase of the pre-season has flown by, with only a few days remaining before the Christmas break.
“I’ve really enjoyed the pre-Christmas training period,” he said.
“Us as leaders got away for the first week of the pre-season, so I’ve only really been back for three weeks – it’s gone really quick and we’ve only got another half a week left.”
