GIANTS coach Leon Cameron remains hopeful of regaining injured vice-captain Stephen Coniglio earlier than expected.
Coniglio damaged his left ankle in the GIANTS' final JLT Community Series match against North Melbourne in Canberra, and was initially ruled out for six weeks.
The West Australian has been in a moon boot for almost a fortnight and was on crutches at training on Thursday morning, but have the boot removed on Monday to begin his rehabilitation on the injury.
If Coniglio is sidelined for the full six weeks as predicted, the star midfielder will miss games against Adelaide, Gold Coast, North Melbourne, Port Adelaide and Sydney, and if the injury doesn't respond to treatment, he could be absent for crucial fixtures against the Western Bulldogs, St Kilda, and Collingwood.
Cameron said no risks would be taken with Coniglio, but he's got his fingers crossed that the 23-year-old can resume playing sooner rather than later.
"We've said six weeks but hopefully it can be five, we'd love to get him back a week earlier," he said.
"He's obviously our vice-captain, he's a fantastic leader of our footy club, but we'll play that game right with him because we don't want to bring him back too early and have it re-occur.
"Hopefully he's on track for round three or four."
Big-name recruit Brett Deledio has continued his slow and steady approach to his second calf injury of the year, and Cameron admitted that the former Richmond midfielder was finding it tough being forced to watch on as his teammates begin the season.
Deledio, who began his time at the GIANTS in outstanding shape before he suffered a minor calf strain in early February, had another setback less than a month later when he looked set to return to full training.
The veteran's fitness could be a major worry for the GIANTS, given the dual Tigers' best and fairest played just 11 games last year thanks to ongoing calf and Achilles troubles.
"He's getting frustrated now because he wants to get out there and start training hard, but we're going to take a really cautious approach," Cameron said.
"It could be four, or five, or six weeks, but I'm not going to hang my hat on that because we're working through it at the moment.
"He's jumping around and wants to get out there, but we're also mindful that over the last 18 months there's been a couple of calf issues, so we want to make sure that doesn't happen again.
"It's one of those really funny ones, sometimes you can take a step forward, and then you take a step back, it all depends on how he pulls up.
"The good thing is he's in good spirits and we hope to see him out there very shortly."
Aidan Corr trained away from the main group on Thursday with midfielder Matt de Boer (hamstring), with the key defender still sporting a supportive splint on his damaged hand after also going down against the Kangaroos.
