FREMANTLE coach Justin Longmuir will not use Hayden Young's latest groin issue as a reason to shift his position when he returns, with the coach confident it is only a minor setback for the star midfielder.
Young came from the ground injured against Greater Western Sydney on Saturday after sensing an issue in his groin, but scans cleared him of any significant damage after the club took a cautious game-day approach with its jet playmaker.
The 25-year-old returned to the track on Tuesday and completed a long session of run-throughs with club trainers, with Longmuir declaring he would have pushed for selection for Thursday night's blockbuster against Sydney at Optus Stadium if the club wasn't on a five-day break.
Young's game time had been managed carefully in recent weeks and he had continued to rotate forward as part of a deep midfield group, with Longmuir convinced a change from that role was not required.
"Not really … his scan came back pretty good and he'd be a chance to get up if it wasn't a five-day break," the coach said on Tuesday.
"We'll see how he feels today, but I don't think this is going to be a massive setback.
"With him, we'd probably take no risks. So as soon as he had a little bit of feeling in his groin, we decided to take him out of the game.
"When you've had a lot of repeat injuries, you do start questioning your body. He's got to work through that and we've got to help him work through that.
"But I don't see this as a massive setback."
The Dockers have several options to replace Young, with Corey Wagner and Jaeger O'Meara versatile midfield options, and Chris Scerri a consideration as a speedy forward.
WAFL star Jeremy Sharp did not play for Peel Thunder last weekend due to a minor illness but trained on Tuesday and could offer fresh legs and significant running power as an inside midfielder and wingman.
After reviewing Saturday's loss to GWS, Longmuir underlined that the performance was out of character, while paying tribute to the Giants' ability to execute their plan.
The coach said he tried to dig into why almost the entire team was off its game but had not identified one clear reason.
"We looked at everything from having not travelled for a while, to going to a venue which not many guys have played at, to different hotels, so you tend to dig deep," he said.
"But there's never one thing or one answer. That's where I've got to with that.
"If we don't start with role and setting the ground up, we lose our identity around the contest and the rest of your game can look pretty ordinary.
"We started there [in review] and making sure that we consistently value the right things, which I think we have for the first 15 weeks.
"For whatever reason, we forgot to do those things on the weekend and it made the game really hard for us."
Longmuir was tight-lipped on the key match-ups on Thursday night and said the Dockers would find a balance between locking down on star individuals and combatting the Swans' overall system.
He stopped short of confirming the team's ruck structure this week and "making [Sydney's] job too easy", but said Luke Jackson had what it took this season to lead the ruck for long periods against Brodie Grundy.
"We'll go in with a plan and then we adjust on the run," he said.
"Luke's our No.1 ruck. We're going to back Luke in, and if we feel like we're getting more benefit with Luke being elsewhere or someone else being in the ruck, we'll adjust the ruck split as we go.
"But I think Luke's showing this year that he can ruck and mix it against any of the rucks in the comp and we'll give him a first crack at Grundy."