The Courier | NORTH Ballarat Roosters onballer Nick Couch returns to football this weekend, but will be on limited game time in his comeback from a knee injury.
The star midfielder will line-up for home club Springbank in Saturday's Central Highlands Football League clash with Learmonth.
Couch sustained swelling around a reconstructed left knee while playing for the Tigers against Beaufort in April and has not taken the field since.
Roosters coach Gerard FitzGerald said the club's head of strength and conditioning Daniel Jones had prescribed limited playing time for Couch this weekend.
"He was on a very, very strictly monitored program all summer, which meant a lot of swimming, spin bike work and (we were) very controlled about how much loading there was through his legs," FitzGerald said.
"What we want is to be a highly managed return to VFL footy and part of that management is time on the ground."
FitzGerald said Couch's game with Springbank early in the season led to a setback and admitted that if a limited playing time request hindered the Tigers, he could be used in the reserves on Saturday.
"He's been a terrific ornament to our club and the most important thing to us now is his knee is okay," FitzGerald said.
Springbank senior coach Terry Simpson said Couch would play the first half in the clash against the Lakies – a replay of last season's elimination final that the Tigers won – and was looking forward to his influence in the team's midfield rotations.
"That's what their (Roosters) medicals say. He will play just 50 per cent of game time and then there's rotations chucked in among that," Simpson said.
Simpson said Couch had wanted to remain on the ground in the match against the Crows, which the GJ Gardner Tigers finished strongly to go down by three points at the final siren. Couch kicked a goal in the last quarter, but pulled up with an inflamed knee after the game.
Springbank is seventh on the CHFL ladder with six wins and two losses.