Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir says superstar captain Nat Fyfe is on track to return from injury around round 10 of the AFL season.
Fyfe hasn't played this season after missing round one, then having surgery to alleviate nerve pressure in his back.
He suffered the injury in late March during an interrupted pre-season off the back of complications, including a nasty infection, from shoulder reconstruction that prematurely ended his 2021 campaign.
"We think he'll be back around round 10. In time for Collingwood," Longmuir said on Fox Footy.
Round 10 is sooner than expected, given on April 14, Longmuir said he was hopeful Fyfe would return a couple of weeks before the mid-season bye, which would have been round 12.
"We quite often talk about how he's going with his rehab," he said.
"When he's gonna return and along the lines of what sort of position, game time, his way back into the side and whether he needs to play a lower level, and all those sorts of things that come into consideration and spit ball.
"We'll work it out closer to his return date, but he's really improved over the last couple of weeks and he's on the right trajectory now."
In Fyfe's absence, young gun Andrew Brayshaw has continued to take his game to another level, starring to lead the Dockers to second on the ladder and five wins from six games.
"He's flying and he's built his game to become a really strong inside/outside player," Longmuir said.
"(He had) 29 possessions and nine score involvements on the weekend but he was most proud of his eight tackles and a couple of those tackles were goal-saving tackles.
"He's doing it the right way. He's a real connector within our playing group.
"He's the connector between all the young players but the young and the old.
"He's got a real ability to connect everyone at the footy club and bring others along with him and he's on a super trajectory at the moment."
