On Wednesday, Day returned to training with his Hawks colleagues and ran few laps before leaving the track later in the session to have his foot scanned due to soreness.
AFL.com.au can reveal that scans revealed the 22-year-old, who is Hawthorn’s reigning best and fairest winner after a breakout 2023 season, has a fracture and will spend many weeks in a moon boot.
The club will next decide a schedule for Day’s recuperation and return, but with Hawthorn’s round one match against Essendon on March 16, the midfielder faces a race against time to be ready for the Hawks’ season opener.
Given Day’s long-term importance to the Hawks, the club will not rush his return.
“Will felt some discomfort during training today, so we sent him off for scans, which unfortunately revealed a stress fracture in his foot,” the club’s high performance manager Peter Burge stated.
“He will be wearing a moon boot for at least the next four weeks while we examine the damage and set a rehabilitation timeline. During this time, we will confer with specialists to ensure that we create the optimum rehabilitation program for Will.
“Will is a young player that is going to have a long future at our football club, so we will be conservative in our approach to get him back on the field.”
It is a setback for the Hawks on their first day back at the club for 2024, with Day becoming one of the emerging midfielders in the game last year when he played 21 out of 23 games, with the only two games he missed due to a suspension for a dangerous tackle early in the year.
The tall and mobile ball-getter moved from the half-back line to play a central role in Sam Mitchell’s young midfield alongside Jai Newcombe, James Worpel and Conor Nash.
He also rejected down significant rival interest in re-signing with the Hawks on a four-year contract through the end of 2027.
