Star Dog set to return after rare injury led to 637-day absence
Western Bulldogs star Cody Weightman will play his first AFL game in 637 days on Friday night.
The small forward has been called up to return for the Dogs after a horror injury run, skipping the VFL entirely.
Cody Weightman looks on at Bulldogs training in 2026. Getty
The 25-year-old last featured in the 2024 elimination final, missing all of 2025 and the first chunk of 2026 with a rare knee issue called bipartite patella, which is a congenital knee condition caused by the failure of the patella to fuse together.
He has had five surgeries on the knee and dealt with multiple setbacks across the last 20 months, including a fight with infection.
Weightman has been in full training at the Bulldogs for a few weeks now, and the club is confident he is ready to return straight into the Friday night spotlight against Hawthorn.
Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge is certainly excited to have him back.
“He’s been getting through a lot more training, which is very, very encouraging,” Beveridge said on Wednesday.
“You know what, I think we forget what sort of player Cody is. He’s just such an influential player for us, so to miss him for a whole year and then the prospect of him maybe playing again is quite exciting for us.”
He was engulfed by teammates when the news was broken to them at training.
Weightman has played 76 career games and kicked 126 goals for the Dogs, playing as a small forward.
He was selected with pick 15 in the 2019 draft and has a career-high of six goals against Gold Coast in 2024.
The Bulldogs will also likely get key defender Jedd Busslinger back from a shoulder injury, while Hawthorn could regain star Tom Barrass from a hamstring.
Remarkably, Hawthorn could enter next week with an entirely clean bill of health. Jack Scrimshaw and James Blanck are both listed as one week away with their respective injuries, while Barrass and Conor Nash are tests for the Dogs clash.
