Western Bulldogs coach in worrying revelation about Tom Liberatore ahead of AFL return

Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge says he is working closely with Tom Liberatore as the midfielder nears his AFL return. Liberatore was ruled out of the game indefinitely after being concussed in April in the Bulldogs' upset loss to Hawthorn.

Liberatore was accidentally kicked in the head by Conor Nash which plunged the Western Bulldogs superstar's future into doubt. The blow came in Liberatore's first game back after collapsing on the field during the Bulldogs' round six loss to Essendon.

The Bulldogs confirmed following the match he would be sidelined for an indefinite period as the club's medical staff planned the best way forward for the superstar. On Monday, the Bulldogs announced that following "specialist review and opinion", the midfielder had been cleared to make a return to full training.

Luke Beveridge trying to adapt Tom Libratore's style of play

But Beveridge says that doesn't mean the Dogs gun is all good, suggesting he could be just one head knock away from being forced to retire. "It’s not like he’s just out of the woods and he comes back and plays and everything’s ok," Beveridge said on Tuesday.

"Each time anyone who’s never had a concussion goes for the footy in a collision-type situation you hold your breath. Sometimes you even think ‘Don’t go for this one, happy for him to mark it’, whatever it may be. With Tom, when he comes back there’ll still be that nervousness that he might cop another knock.

"I was talking to him this morning around technique and craft and some of the situations where he’s been hit in the head and what we can do to mitigate against it happening again. We’ll do a bit of work with that between now and when he returns to play, ground-level stuff, just charge in head first. We can do it in other ways, which he has in the past. We’ll work through that with them. It’s not like we just go everything’s ok. We’re still a bit nervous."

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Tom Libratore has a history of concussions

Liberatore was also ruled out with concussion twice last year after incidents against Fremantle and Hawthorn. And the Bulldogs are taking extra precautions with Liberatore as they have only just seen his teammate forced to medically retire. Last year's No.55 draft pick Aiden O’Driscoll called time on his career, at just 18 years old without making an AFL appearance, as a result of a concussion suffered in January.

Liberatore has been doing non-contact training in recent weeks and will soon return to full training. With only a rough timeline, it is unclear when he will be recalled to the AFL side but Bulldogs Head of Sports Medicine, Chris Bell, said the current plan is to see him return to first-team action in two to three weeks.

“We have continued to be very diligent and thorough in our processes for assessing and managing Tom following his most recent concussion in Round 8,” Bell said.

“This has involved specialist review and opinion to help guide his return to play planning. In some great news, after some reassuring results, we have devised a structured return to play plan, that if everything goes well, will see Tom returning to play across the next 2-3 weeks."

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