JORDAN Lewis will miss Melbourne’s Anzac Day Eve clash against Richmond at the MCG, due to a broken hand.

Lewis suffered the injury during the second quarter of Melbourne’s 67-point loss to Hawthorn at the MCG last Sunday. He will miss at least one, possibly two matches.

But defender Neville Jetta is likely to play against the Tigers, after hurting his ankle against the Hawks.

Co-captain Jack Viney and key tall Tom McDonald, who are both recovering from foot injuries, are now no longer than a month away from resuming.

And Aaron vandenBerg (ankle) is now on target for a second half of the season return, while Pat McKenna (hamstring) is back on track after a hiccup last week.  

Elite performance manager Dave Misson said it was an interesting couple of weeks coming up for the team, given it had a long break entering the Richmond clash and then a quick turnaround before playing Essendon at Etihad Stadium in round six.

“The players pulled up OK. They’re very disappointed [from the loss against Hawthorn]. It’s all about Anzac Eve now and trying to pick the best team and get everyone up and about for that game, which is going to be a great game,” he told Melbourne Media.

“It’s a bit different. We’ve got a fair bit of time now until [the] Richmond [match], so we don’t want to do too much training. But we want to take advantage of the long week to get a little bit of load into the players.

“The five-day turnaround is all about recovery and getting up for the Essendon game, so it’s an interesting couple of weeks ahead. We’re head down bum up and really trying to turn ourselves around after a really disappointing game on Sunday night.”

Misson’s injury assessments

Neville Jetta (ankle) – test
“It was a pretty ugly … he was lucky to get out of it with just a minor ankle problem. He’s pulled up pretty well and he’s had a lot of swelling, but [he’s had] just a bit of soreness in-and-around that area. We’ll just assess Nev later in the week, and he’ll probably be a test. We expect him to be available.”

Jordan Lewis (hand) – 1-2 weeks
“Jordy suffered a fracture to his hand – his fourth finger in the second quarter, so he’s actually done really well to play the rest of the game with a broken hand. But unfortunately, he’ll miss the Richmond game. He had surgery yesterday (Monday) and had a plate put in that hand. We’re hoping he’s only going to miss one, but maybe a little bit longer than that. We think he’s a pretty good healer and the surgeon was happy with what he did yesterday. Hopefully Jordy will only miss one week.”

Tom McDonald (foot) – 2-3 weeks
“Tommy is going well. As mentioned last week, Tommy is probably one or two sessions ahead of Jack [Viney] and is quite well advanced with his football work. He’ll actually train with the group a little bit on Saturday morning. We actually expect Tom to potentially be available for the Essendon game.”

Pat McKenna (hamstring) – indefinite
“Patty had a run today (Tuesday). As I mentioned last week, he had a minor setback in the gym, but it was only minor, and he had a bit of a run today and will keep progressing his running over the next month or so.”

Aaron vandenBerg (ankle) – 8-10 weeks
“Without putting a mocker on him, we’re hoping that Vanders has really turned a corner. His last couple of running sessions have been the best he’s put in for probably 12 months. So, we’re really hoping that that’s going to continue. His progress has been really positive in the last 10 days. We think Aaron will probably get a couple of VFL games in before the bye and then we’ll see what happens after that bye week.”

Jack Viney (foot) – 3-4 weeks
“Jack is going well. He’s starting to do some fast running and a fair bit more in boots – footy type work. He’s still probably three to four weeks.

Melbourne injury list: round five

Neville Jetta (ankle) – test
Jordan Lewis (hand) – 1-2 weeks
Tom McDonald (foot) – 2-3 weeks
Pat McKenna (hamstring) – indefinite
Aaron vandenBerg (ankle) – 8-10 weeks
Jack Viney (foot) – 3-4 weeks