In-form Collingwood veteran Steele Sidebottom will sit out of this weekend’s clash with North Melbourne to manage a “grumbling back”.
Sidebottom has delivered a brilliant opening half of the season, highlighted by Anzac Day Medal honours in the wet against Essendon.
Collingwood coach Craig McRae said Sidebottom was due for a rest and the flare up in his back paved the way for it to be this week.
“Steele is going to rest this week, we’ll manage him, that’s been the plan for a number of weeks. He’s had a bit of a grumbling back,” McRae said.
“But he’s had that for, I want to say, the last six or seven years, to be honest.
“Every week he said ‘nah, I’ll be right, we’ll get there’ and then slowly but surely he’s expressed himself a bit more.
“We’ve had to deliver a plan to manage him this week.”
Captain Darcy Moore (shoulder) won’t play this week, while Dan Houston (calf) will be named despite showing discomfort at training.
Moore missed last week after hurting his shoulder in the dying minutes of Collingwood’s previous win over Fremantle.
Houston sat out of main training earlier in the week and did some fitness testing on Thursday with heavy bandaging on his right leg.
McRae said Houston “did a great job to get up” and will face the Kangaroos unless he pulls up sore on Friday.
“Dan had a bigger limp at the start of the week, so we’re rapt with how he’s gone about it,” he said.
“He’ll play at the moment as long as he doesn’t pull up sore tomorrow. We’ll name him, credit to him he did a great job to get up this week.
“It’s looking unlikely for Darcy at this stage, I think we’ll rule him out … he’s another one who put himself right in the frame to play, unfortunately there’s just a little bit of lingering stuff in the AC joint at the moment.”
