{"id":116674,"date":"2021-08-19T05:54:53","date_gmt":"2021-08-19T05:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=116674"},"modified":"2021-08-19T15:38:35","modified_gmt":"2021-08-19T15:38:35","slug":"injury-cans-star-eagles-return-from-doping-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=116674","title":{"rendered":"Injury cans star Eagle's return from doping ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

West Coast<\/a> premiership forward Willie Rioli<\/a> is likely on the verge of watching back-to-back seasons pass by without playing an AFL<\/a> game, after he was ruled out of this Saturday's clash with Brisbane<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Eagles had locked in Rioli to face the Lions in their must-win match at The Gabba, but he's since been scratched from the game due to hamstring tightness.<\/p>\n

Coach Adam Simpson<\/a> confirmed that key pair Josh Kennedy [finger] and Jeremy McGovern [hip] would also miss the game, joining gun midfielder Tim Kelly<\/a> [knee] and defender Brad Sheppard [concussion] on the sideline.<\/p>\n

Rioli, who's completed his two-year ban for twice tampering with a urine sample, had been set to play his first AFL game since West Coast's 2019 elimination final against Essendon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old will now only have a chance of making his long-awaited AFL comeback this season if the out-of-form, undermanned Eagles spring an upset on the Lions and other results play out in their favour.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

If West Coast fail to steal a top-eight berth in the final round of the regular season, the club will weigh up whether Rioli should make his return in the last two rounds of the WAFL season.<\/p>\n

But irrespective of whether Rioli returns to the field in the WAFL this season, Simpson sympathised with him following his hamstring setback.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"It's disappointing, but he pulled up a bit tight a couple of days ago and unfortunately we can't play him, as much as we all want to," Simpson told reporters.<\/p>\n

"It's been a really good process for him and the club the last eight weeks. I'm really proud of what he's done and he's got complete buy-in from our players and staff.<\/p>\n

"He's back. His suspension is over, he just won't be playing this week. He's done everything he can, he just couldn't get to the line."<\/p>\n

Simpson said internal discussions had been had regarding whether Rioli deserved to regain his place in West Coast's 22 during the pointy end of the season.<\/p>\n

The 2018 West Coast premiership coach said no one had been in opposition to Rioli returning this week, provided he was fit and among the best 22 players available.<\/p>\n

"We were going to play him," Simpson said.<\/p>\n

"Everyone we spoke to was pretty keen to get him in."<\/p>\n

\"Willie<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

West Coast premiership forward Willie Rioli is likely on the verge of watching back-to-back seasons pass by without playing an AFL game, after he was […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116674"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116676,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116674\/revisions\/116676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}