Rising star Adrian Zahra remains at least a month away from returning to action despite making significant progress in his injury recovery.
Rising star Adrian Zahra remains at least a month away from returning to action despite making significant progress in his injury recovery.
Zahra has been out of action since the start of the year after falling victim to a red card challenge from Kevin Muscat during the Melbourne Derby at Etihad Stadium on January 22.
The tackle forced Zahra to undergo surgery to his right knee, forcing him onto the sidelines for an extended period.
And while he has since resumed training with the first team, the 20-year-old isn-t in contention for selection until the end of November.
High Performance Manager, Medical, Martin Wollin told the Herald Sun Zahra is on track to make a full recovery, but still needs to achieve necessary milestones before being eligible for selection.
“We did some stock standard strength and functional testing a few weeks ago, and he’s still is a little bit away from where we want him to be,” Wollin said.
“We plan to re-test that in the next four to six weeks. If he ticks all those boxes, then it is just a matter of when he can compete at A-League level.
“He’s not 100 per cent, but he’s training fully and still has some areas where he can improve, but eight months of rehab now with a severe injury that required reconstruction of two knee ligaments can easily stretch out to a year.”
