Geelong skipper Joel Selwood admits he needed his injury-enforced AFL break and will look to manage his body throughout the rest of the season.
Selwood spent a fortnight on the sidelines with a leg injury before returning to action in last week’s win over the Western Bulldogs.
There was confusion during the round eight clash with North Melbourne when Selwood was named as a late inclusion, then withdrew less than an hour before the game.
“I needed the couple of weeks, to be honest,” the 279-game veteran told reporters at Melbourne Airport on Friday.
“I travelled down and was going to play the (North Melbourne) game and it came over me that I probably needed another week off as I was driving down.
“I missed a couple but I feel better for it.”
Selwood’s bash-and-crash style is bound to have taken a toll over the years, although the 30-year-old’s role has been adjusted to include less midfield time.
The six-time All Australian will line up in Saturday’s clash with Gold Coast at Metricon Stadium but will consider resting himself later in the season.
“It’ll really just depend on how the body is feeling. For a couple of weeks there, it wasn’t up to playing the standard of footy the AFL’s got to these days,” he said.
“We’ll just wait and see on that.”
Star midfielder Patrick Dangerfield will miss the Suns’ clash with an ankle injury but Rhys Stanley and Tom Atkins are both back.
“He didn’t train throughout the week so it was a pretty easy decision, I think, from the coaches,” Selwood said of Dangerfield.
“He’ll prepare over the weekend and then we’ll just see how he is next week.”
At 8-1, the Cats sit a game clear on top of the ladder and have included fellow premiership fancies Collingwood and West Coast among their scalps.
But Selwood doesn’t want his teammates getting ahead of themselves, warning that plenty can change in the second half of the year.
“A lot happens between now and the end of the season,” Selwood said.
“I’ve been there and done that – there’s a chance you could lose a lot of players between now and then that we have right now.
“We’ve just got to be careful. We’ve got to play everyone as healthy as we can and play good footy up until then.”