{"id":49827,"date":"2021-03-26T06:17:57","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T07:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=49827"},"modified":"2021-03-26T10:57:38","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T10:57:38","slug":"heppell-named-after-last-minute-back-scans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=49827","title":{"rendered":"Heppell named after last-minute back scans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Essendon captain Dyson Heppell<\/a> has played down concerns surrounding a back injury after undergoing scans a day out from his side's trip to Adelaide to face the Power.<\/p>\n

News of the 28-year-old having scans on his lower back sent shockwaves through the AFL community on Friday, with fears the skipper would be forced to sit out through injury yet again.<\/p>\n

Heppell endured a torrid 2020 season<\/a> after he was limited to just three games due to a nagging foot issue, but dispelled any concerns Bombers fans might have had about his injury woes.<\/p>\n

However, the inspirational skipper was named in Essendon's 23 for Round Two, as coach Ben Rutten named an unchanged line-up to take on the Power.<\/p>\n

"The foot is happy days," Heppell told reporters. <\/p>\n

\"Dyson<\/p>\n

"I just had a bit of a crook back at training so just come in for a precautionary (scan) to see what's going on. Hopefully be cherry ripe for the weekend."<\/p>\n

Heppell has been played in a new halfback role this season by Ben Rutten and enjoyed a solid outing in Essendon's Round One loss to Hawthorn<\/a>, picking up 25 disposals.<\/p>\n

The latest fears surrounding Heppell's health come after he opened up about the foot injury that threatened to derail his career after he played through pain in the 2019 finals.<\/p>\n

"What I figured, and all the advice I had been given was that I couldn't do anything worse to it – it was cactus anyway, it was broken, it sucked," he told AFL.com.au.<\/p>\n

\"Dyson<\/p>\n

"Guys have been through it before, I have spoken to other guys who have done it before. The hardest thing was the lack of preparation. You'd fire up on game day, grit it through a game on a few painkillers, then rehab and recovery and not being able to train.<\/p>\n

"It is a major distraction trying to perform at your best when you have got something there that is constantly giving you a signal, and a referral, and something that is always on your mind \u2026 no amount of painkillers could dull that, no, no, no."<\/p>\n

Heppell's Bombers are scheduled to take on Port Adelaide at the Adelaide Oval at 4:35pm on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

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

Essendon captain Dyson Heppell has played down concerns surrounding a back injury after undergoing scans a day out from his side's trip to Adelaide to […]<\/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\/49827"}],"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=49827"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49829,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49827\/revisions\/49829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}