Injury List

REAL FOOTY Collingwood's prized but as-yet unseen young talent Matthew Scharenberg is virtually back in full training, just months after having his knee reconstructed. Scharenberg joined in match simulation in the past fortnight, which was non-contact but still required him to twist and turn in play, and his knee held up well during. He did not play in the club's intra-club practice match at Olympic Park on Thursday night. The No.6 pick in the 2013 draft did not play a senior game last year as he recovered from foot and toe surgery, which the club was aware of when he was drafted. He returned to the VFL late in the season only to injure his knee in round 22. It was assumed he would miss almost all  this season, but that appears unlikely with the 191-centimetre running defender likely to return sooner. The injury was a clean tear of the anterior cruciate ligament with no trauma to the surrounding joint and tendons. That meant it was a cleaner reconstruction than normal. "He is getting closer," Collingwood football manager Neil Balme said on Thursday. "He is not playing tonight [in  the intra-club match] but he is getting closer. "We are not pushing him but he is certainly ahead of schedule. "There is no time frame or dates on his return but he is in front of what we expected." Scharenberg will be assessed by the orthopaedic surgeon soon before stepping up training. "He will definitely be playing footy this year. Without knowing the situation before I came here you felt he would play this year but it would be pretty late to have an impact given when he did it last year, but I think he will be well in front of that but there are no dates mentioned," Balme said. "We have been cautious with him and have not been pushing him along, but he is definitely progressing faster than we thought he would." Recruit Darcy Moore did not play in Thursday's match practice due to a toe injury, but is also close to a full return to training. "He could have played, but we felt it better not to. He is going all right," Balme said. Brent Macaffer, also recovering from a knee reconstruction, has had a few setbacks in his recovery, while experienced defender Clinton Young has suffered another hamstring strain, which will require a longer recovery period than a regular tear. Those four are the only players on Collingwood's injury list at this stage. Balme said Travis Varcoe, who arrived the club as Balme did this year from Geelong, had impressed in training. Varcoe is understood to have run his best time for a two-kilometre time trial by more than 15 seconds. "I have never seen him train so well. His approach to the whole place, his buy-in is amazing. Not that he was a poor trainer at Geelong or didn't buy in but he has had a terrific pre-season," Balme said.

AFL COLLINGWOOD is pleased with the progress important big man Ben Reid has made since returning from Germany for treatment on the soft tissue injuries that have stalled his career. Midfielder Clinton Young, however, has started his hamstring rehabilitation again after suffering a number of setbacks over the pre-season, according to football manager Neil Balme. Reid was sent overseas last month to be treated by the doctor of European soccer giant Bayern Munich after he suffered another innocuous calf injury. The 25-year-old was restricted to just four games last season because of calf, quad and hamstring issues and he had been one week away from resuming full training when his latest setback struck in a warm-up exercise. Balme didn't offer a timeline for Reid's availability to play, but said the club was encouraged by his progress five weeks after returning from Germany. "He's coming along well and he won't be all that far away," Balme told the club's website. "Because he had that time out of the program, he's got to work through the program … he's going to start his program late. "(But) we're very pleased with the way he's going." Reid will be one of a number of key players missing for the Magpies' intra-club match on Thursday night, with Young (hamstring), Brent Macaffer (knee) and Jarrod Witts (shoulder) also unavailable. Balme said the club would take 37 fit players into the hit-out at Olympic Park, exactly one week before launching the pre-season competition against Hawthorn at Aurora Stadium. He said Young, however, had suffered "a couple of minor recurrences" with his troublesome hamstring and had needed to start his rehabilitation again.  "He's just getting into a serious running program, so he should be fine, but it will be a little while before he plays," Balme said. Balme said the Magpies were taking a cautious approach with prized young tall Darcy Moore, who was recovering from a toe issue, and the club wouldn't rush second-year midfielder Matthew Scharenberg (knee). Ben Reid