The former North Ballarat Rebel has been in a race against time as he has spent the week recovering from a nasty eye injury after he copped a football to the eye in the club’s six-point preliminary final triumph over Greater Western Sydney.

The 25-year-old spent Monday in a dark room as he allowed his eye to recover as quick as possible. Roughead trained strongly at Thursday’s training session. However, Roughead was diagnosed with a hyphema of the right eye, which involves bleeding in the front chamber of the eye. Therefore his selection hinged on how his eye responded to the hit-out.

As expected, the Dogs named fellow ruckman Tom Campbell among the three emergencies to provide insurance in an unchanged line-up.

Roughead’s father, Paul, expressed how tense the typically exciting grand final week had been for them given the uncertainty about his fitness leading into Saturday. 

And while he felt the injury may be beneficial in taking his mind off the pressure-filled grand final, he admitted it had been disappointing to miss out on most of the week’s events.

“I’ve been tense all week,” Roughead said.

“It’s made it difficult for him … he didn’t get to the VFL grand final with the teammates. They have the opportunity to really soak in the euphoria of what they’ve done – he missed that. 

“There’s a lot of hype that goes on that he hasn’t seen.”

VFL grand final hero Lin Jong was not recalled for the AFL grand final, but was named on the emergency list along with former-Hawk Matt Suckling.

Sydney made two changes to the line-up that accounted for Geelong. Bringing in co-captain Jarrad McVeigh who had been battling a minor calf strain while young gun Callum Mills will also return to the team after straining his hamstring against GWS in the qualifying final. Unlucky Swan Aliir Aliir was ruled out mid-week with a knee injury after playing the last 11 games for Sydney. While Harrison Marsh, who has played seven games in 2016 – including every final, was omitted.