Gary Ablett remains upbeat about his pre-season progress, despite owning the most talked-about hamstring in the AFL.
The Geelong veteran has a hamstring strain after suffering tightness during match simulation last Thursday.
Given this is Ablett and he is 33, the setback has attracted considerable attention.
But the two-time Brownlow Medallist is confident he will be ready for round one and could even play in their second pre-season game on March 11.
The Cats have stressed that Ablett was never going to play in their opening pre-season game this Saturday.
Geelong and Ablett also had been rapt about his pre-season training until the injury.
“You see that all the time in pre-season,” Ablett said on Tuesday.
“We’re training pretty hard at the moment, we had three solid sessions in the space of a week and I pulled up a little bit tight in the hammy.
“But it’s fine. We’ve had a scan, it’s only very low grade.”
Earlier on Tuesday, his manager Liam Pickering said Ablett’s goal remained to play every regular-season game for the Cats this season.
And the star utility is confident his body will hold up, despite a succession of injury problems in his past few seasons at Gold Coast.
“I’ve had little niggling injuries like this throughout my whole career, but as I’ve got older they seem to be talked about a lot more,” Ablett said.
“As I said, that’s all part of pre-season.
“We’re training ourselves pretty hard, we’re taking our bodies to the edge to try and get our legs conditioned.
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