Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
It’s mixed news out of the Western Bulldogs’ rehab room.
Aaron Naughton has miraculously avoided any time off despite his thunderous fall last Thursday and Tim English is closing in on a return.
But hard-nosed midfielder Tom Liberatore remains under concussion protocols and will not play against Fremantle on Friday night.
Naughton was stretchered off after perilously leaping for a mark during the Dogs’ loss to Sydney but was cleared of concussion and any neck issues.
Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said it was “amazing” Naughton was unscathed.
“I reckon he’ll be fine, Indian Rubber Man, really,” Beveridge said.
“It’s amazing that he’s OK, but once they got him through the initial analysis and the investigation that he hadn’t damaged anything in his neck and that came up clear.
“He’s bounced out of that pretty well, so the great thing is that he didn’t (have) worries concussion wise.
“He’ll train and I imagine he is going to play … I must admit I didn’t see the replay in real time, I didn’t go back and look at it.
“When I was looking at post (game), I sort of looked at it with one eye open. It’s one of those things that you don’t really want to see because you know what happened.
“I was surprised that he was OK, (he’s) hyper-malleable.”
Liberatore was concussed against Geelong a fortnight ago but needs a longer rest to fully recover.
Beveridge said there was a mix of Liberatore still showing symptoms and the club taking his history of concussions into account.
“He’s not ready, he’s not quite himself yet so he’s not up for selection this week,” Beveridge said.
“Once you see him and you know he’s got through a main training session then he’ll probably be right to play.
“That hasn’t happened, so over the course of the next week or two we can hopefully get him there but for the moment he won’t be playing this week.
“A little bit of both (symptoms and history). He’s sleeping OK, hasn’t really got any headaches (but) sometimes it’s a bit hard to concentrate after head knocks.
“I think he’s finding some of that stuff is a bit more prevalent in his day-to-day, we’re just looking for signs he’s totally on top of things.”
Marcus Bontempelli has been playing under duress with a niggling knee complaint but it didn’t seem to slow the brilliant Bulldog down against the Swans.
Tim English, meanwhile, is close to returning but Beveridge said he wouldn’t risk the star big man underdone.
“The skipper should be right, playing a bit sore but he keeps doing it, keeps fronting up,” he said.
“Tim, at least this week, it appears he’s closer. He’ll need to train, if he gets through we’ll process it and there’s a chance he plays.”
