Port Adelaide hit by injury to ruck recruit Soldo

Port Adelaide’s ruck recruit Ivan Soldo will miss at least the next month of the AFL season after an old knee injury flared again.

Soldo is to have arthroscopic surgery after damaging a lateral meniscus in his left knee last week.

The Power will now give their second ruck recruit Jordon Sweet, from the Western Bulldogs, an extended crack – starting with Friday night’s clash against St Kilda at Adelaide Oval.

Sweet will carry the rucks in a Power side bolstered by the return from injury of key forward Charlie Dixon and the club’s games-record holder Travis Boak.

Sweet played 11 games for the Bulldogs, returning to his native South Australia at the end of last season.

He played in Port’s heavy loss to Collingwood last-start and will be pitted against St Kilda ace Rowan Marshall on Friday night.

The loss of Ivan Soldo hands an opportunity to new recruit Jordon Sweet (right). (Matt Turner/AAP PHOTOS)

“In every little bit of a down story there’s a positive story, and that is for Jordon to get an opportunity,” Port coach Ken Hinkley told reporters on Thursday.

“He has shown at the level below that he’s just too good at that level, he was dominant last year over in Victoria as a VFL ruckman and this year even in the SANFL he has been really strong.

“He just needs and looks for an opportunity to show what he can do at a fair level consistently.”

Hinkley said former Richmond ruck Soldo, who had impressed with an average 29 hitouts in his first six outings for Port, was expected to miss “four or five weeks”.

“The simple story is that he’s got some history with his knees, (and) he’s given it a bit of a bang,” Hinkley said.

“We’ve made an assertive, an aggressive, decision to make sure we take care of that right now.

“He will have a little procedure and miss a little period of time.

“Ivan, we hope, will be a ruckman for our footy club for a good period of time and a small procedure now might save us some long-term grief.”

Port hold sixth spot entering the encounter against Ross Lyon’s Saints who, after stumbling with consecutive defeats, are in 13th with a 2-4 win-loss record.

“When you come up against Ross, you typically come up against a really defensive team who are really, really hard-working and a high-pressuring team,” Hinkley said.

“We’re going to have our work cut out if we don’t come for the contest initially.”