Aaron Naughton, the Western Bulldogs' "Indian rubber man", is set to face Fremantle in an extraordinary recovery following a concerning tumble.
The star Bulldogs forward is likely to play just eight days after landing on his head in sickening fashion in a 66-point defeat to Sydney last Thursday night.
The 26-year-old came down with serious force and lay motionless on the ground for at least a minute, before he was taken from the field on a stretcher.
But remarkably, Naughton was cleared of concussion and any serious injury the following day.
In a rare stroke of good fortune for the banged-up Bulldogs, the left-footer is expected to be named for Friday night's clash with the Dockers at Marvel Stadium.
"I reckon he’ll be fine, Indian rubber man, really," Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said on Wednesday.
“It’s amazing that he’s OK, but they got him through the initial analysis and the investigation that he hadn’t damaged anything in his neck.
“He’s bounced out of that pretty well, so the great thing is that he didn’t (have) worries concussion wise.
“He’ll train and I imagine he is going to play.
"I must admit I didn’t see the replay in real time, I didn’t go back and look at it.
“When I was looking (post-game), I looked at it with one eye open.
"It’s one of those things that you don’t really want to see because you know what happened.
"I was surprised that he was OK, (he’s) hyper-malleable."
But the Bulldogs won't take any risks with hard-nosed veteran Tom Liberatore, who is still battling symptoms from a concussion suffered two weeks against Geelong.
“Once you see him and you know he’s got through a main training session then he’ll probably be right to play," Beveridge said.
“That hasn’t happened, so over the course of the next week or two we can hopefully get him there, but for the moment he won’t be playing this week.
“A little bit of both (symptoms and concussion history).
"He’s sleeping OK, hasn’t really got any headaches, (but) sometimes it’s a bit hard to concentrate after head knocks."
The injury-hit Bulldogs will be desperate to end a three-game losing run, and also redeem themselves after suffering a final-round loss to Fremantle at the same venue last season.
In a winner-takes-all end to last year's home-and-away season, the Dockers won to book their place in the finals and end the Bulldogs' campaign before September.
