McGovern’s pre-season on hold after surgery

Star West Coast defender Jeremy McGovern will have an interrupted pre-season after having heel surgery this week.

The four-time All-Australian, who hails from North Albany, is expected to return to the track with his teammates in late January, though the Eagles’ senior players return to pre-season training on Monday.

The key defender went under the knife to fix a heel complaint, in a similar procedure to that performed on spearhead Josh Kennedy’s ankle in late 2017.

McGovern’s operation is not expected to affect his availability for the start of next season.

“Jeremy unfortunately had a little bit of ongoing heel pain during the off-season and we decided the best thing for him was to go and have some surgery of his heel,” Eagles senior physiotherapist Paul Tucker said.

“Very similar to a process (Josh) had done a couple of seasons ago ... we’d expect Jeremy back running with the group in the new year.”