Essendon coach James Hird is optimistic rebounding defender Courtenay Dempsey avoided a serious injury in his bone-rattling collision with Sydney’s Nick Smith.
Dempsey was stretchered off the SCG in the third quarter of the Bombers’ 44-point loss to the Swans after being floored by Smith in a brutal marking contest.
The 25-year-old was coughing up blood and spent the night in a Sydney hospital, but Hird suggested the initial diagnosis was positive.
“It looks like he should probably come home tomorrow (Sunday),” Hird said on Saturday night.
“He hasn’t got a punctured lung, it looks like al his organs are intact and he hasn’t got broken ribs.
“They’re doing a scan on him later tonight and we’re pretty hopeful it was nothing long term or too bad. But it was a huge knock.”
Hird said it was too early to know if Dempsey would be a chance of taking on Carlton on Friday night, while Scott Gumbleton is also in doubt with an ankle injury.
Sydney’s Tommy Walsh injured his hamstring against the Bombers, with substitute Tom Mitchell playing more of his debut than expected.
“He looked more than at home at times. You saw what he was about tonight, he’s very hard,” Swans coach John Longmire said of the son of former Swans best and fairest Barry Mitchell.
“He tackles ferociously and he’s a good decision maker under pressure. He ended up doing quite well tonight, for his first game he didn’t look too far out of it.”