Former Eagle Ashley Sampi's hopes of resurrecting his stalled AFL career look no closer to coming to fruition.
Sampi has been partaking in pre-season training with Melbourne after being delisted by West Coast, but his bid to be snapped up in either of the upcoming drafts has been dogged by setbacks.
In fact, the 23-year-old has been hampered so badly by injury and illness that Melbourne recruiting manager Craig Cameron rated the former No.6 draft pick as just a 50 percent chance to be snaffled by the club.
"He's come with a bit of a sore knee and (he's) probably not in the best condition so we haven't made a decision on Ashley at this point," Cameron exclusively told Sportal on Wednesday.
"If I said it was unlikely that we'd draft him on Saturday (it might not be the case), (but) I'd say it's probably 50-50, we haven't come to a decision yet."
"We'd like to see him train a bit more, his knee's held him back ... he got ill as well this week so it's been difficult for him."
In a further dent to Sampi's chances, Cameron questioned how serious he was about returning to the big league.
"We'd like to see a commitment from him that he was ready to take up AFL football again and get himself in the condition that he'd need to be in," Cameron conceded.
Sampi has been staying with close friend, and Melbourne livewire, Aaron Davey during his tryout and the ex-Eagle is one of several delisted players to nominate for Saturday's draft.