After being taken off the ground on a stretcher on Saturday afternoon, Gordon co-captain Mark Gunnell's prospects of playing in his side's qualifying final against Newlyn weren't looking too good.
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The key back has been instrumental to the Eagles' success in 2019, playing 14 of Gordon's 16 games and helping lead the league's highest scoring team.
Now only a few days later, Eagles coach Ron Watt says Gunnell is ready to return to 'modified training'.
"He'll be doing some modified training and we'll be taking every precaution needed," Watt said.
"All indications are he'll play this weekend."
Watt said he didn't see what happened to Gunnell but said the co-captain was in a lot of pain at the time of the injury.
"It was just one of those incidents when he copped a knock and there was a bit of a spasm and some intense pain at the time, he found it hard to move but after that it's settled and he's recovered really well.
"I didn't even see it, it happened right over on the other side of the ground in amongst all the sleet and ice."
Following the injury, Watt said he quickly moved on to what he and his side would do in its upcoming final. Watt explained in his experience he believes it is best to be fluid moving towards a game as players are bound to miss time during the season.
"As a coach you can't afford to overthink things... issues pop up all the time in life and you just have to deal with them.
"I've found over the years that you can spend a lot of time worrying about picking a team and then three days later everything changes... three blokes you thought were in become unavailable and three blokes you weren't expecting to be available are so I find there's no point in looking too far ahead."
The Eagles finished the season in hot form, stringing together eight wins to close the season including a final round victory over Waubra to drop the Roos to fourth on the ladder. Watt says he believes his side is ready for a big finals series and is excited for its match-up at the weekend against the Cats.
"Newlyn has been in really good form this year, I've seen a couple of their games during the year and they're pretty impressive so I'm looking forward to the game... playing against the best sides brings the best out in our players."
A victory at the weekend would see the Eagles receive a week off before a qualifying final. Watt said the weeks rest would be important for Gordon to help keep his players healthy.
"It's always important to try and get to the preliminary final as quickly as you can... it would give us the best chance to keep everybody rested and healthy."
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