All Australian Lachie Whitfield looks set to take on the Lions on Sunday at GIANTS Stadium while exciting draftee Jye Caldwell will line up in the NEAFL earlier in the day.

Whitfield has missed the last three away games, plus the bye, after breaking his collarbone in the round 11 win over the Suns over a month ago. 

The star half-forward will line up back at GIANTS Stadium on Sunday afternoon, provided he gets through training this week.

“At this stage it looks like he’s a solid chance to play this week,” GIANTS General Manager of Football Wayne Campbell said.

“He’s missed four weeks now and there have been players that have come back a bit earlier but he did have a break in there; we operated and put a plate in but it’s really solid now. 

“He was doing a little bit of contact work last week and ramps that up this week, all going well he’s a chance to get out there against the Lions.” 

Caldwell - the GIANTS’ first pick and 11th overall in last year’s draft - will play his fourth NEAFL game of the season when the GIANTS take on the Lions in the curtain-raiser from 1pm on Sunday after recovering from a calf injury. 

“He came to us with a couple of injuries, he had a couple of hamstrings and calves in his 18th year,” Campbell said.

“We’ve just held him back a little bit and got some training into him but he played in the JLT earlier this year and supporters were quite excited to see him so we’ll see him on Sunday in the NEAFL team.”

In further good news, power forward Jonny Patton is expected to return to the field in the coming weeks as he works his way back from his third knee reconstruction.

“I think it’s about 12 months now, around about that,” Campbell said.

“He’s been training really well for probably four to six weeks now, he’s been doing handball games and some contested marking. 

“We think over the next couple of weeks he’ll get out there and play again. It’s great to see him up and about and he’s looking really fit and training really hard as well.”

In the NEAFL, Tommy Sheridan re-injured his troublesome calf on Friday night at Henson Park.

“He had a long layoff and we thought we gave him enough time but at half-time he felt some awareness in it,” Campbell said.

“He’s just got a little nick in his tendon which tends to take a little longer than the muscle.”

The GIANTS take on the Lions at 4:40pm on Sunday at GIANTS Stadium with the two club’s NEAFL sides to do battle from 1pm.