Fremantle skipper Nat Fyfe says his injured shoulder will be ready for round one of the 2022 AFL campaign but he is not sure whether the same can be said for the rest of his body.
Fremantle are priced at 2/1 to finish in the top eight of the AFL and a fit and firing Fyfe will be crucial to their chances of playing finals.
Shoulder issue
Fyfe has had a far from straight forward pre-season as he has battled back from the shoulder reconstruction he had towards the end of the 2021 campaign.
He suffered a number of setbacks but has made speedy progress over the last few weeks to put himself right in contention for the season opener.
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Fyfe says the shoulder is looking good but now they just need to wait and see if the rest of his body is okay after putting it through some gruelling sessions.
"We're taking a round one is not on or off the table approach," Fyfe told reporters on Wednesday.
"Because I've had to push so hard over the last two months to get the rest of my body up to speed, we're just waiting for it to consolidate and making sure there's no soft-tissue injury risks.
"The shoulder will be fine for round one, it's just whether the rest of the body is right to go."
Progress made
Meanwhile Fyfe believes the Dockers have made progress in pre-season, beating West Coast on two occasions, but they will only know for sure once the season gets underway.
"Pre-season games basically give you zero information, so we can't really take anything from our games against West Coast," he added.
"But I think the standard of training we've seen from our players across pre-season indicates to me that we're a more professional, harder outfit. The season proper will tell us whether that's actually true."
