He’s got a dodgy ankle and admits being “bashed around” but Adelaide midfielder Patrick Dangerfied says fears for his health are overblown.

The key Crow endures a battering most AFL games and recently has struggled with back and knee ailments.

But Dangerfield says his injuries attract needless media scrutiny.

“A lot of the time it gets blown out of proportion,” Dangerfield told reporters on Monday.

“You get a niggle here and there most weeks and it just seems to have been blown out of proportion throughout the season. It’s not something we can really control as players.”

But the dynamic Dangerfield said he would relish Adelaide’s bye this weekend, ahead of a July 27 encounter against Collingwood at the MCG.

“It will be nice to have the weekend off rather than being bashed around,” he said.

“But at the same time, we have been in some pretty good form over the last month so it would have been nice to have kept that rolling, but certainly it’s a chance to recover a little bit.

“I have had a bit of a dodgy ankle for the majority of the season so when you have that, you might tweak it during a game and the amount of media coverage each game has now, everything just gets magnified.”

The Crows enter their bye in 10th spot, one win outside the top eight – a precarious slot Dangerfield said was the fault of the players.

“I’d never call it bad luck,” he said.

“We have put ourselves in the situation that we’re in so we take full accountability for that.

“But we can only control the games we have ahead of us, there’s no point looking back.

“We have played some really good footy this year but also some poor footy, it’s just about bridging that gap between the good and the poor and having more consistent performances.

“We’re ranked outside of the top eight, so that is where we’re at. There’s no point thinking we could be higher.”