Premiership aspirants Adelaide, North Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs are all sweating on the results of scans after injuries to key players over the weekend.
Crows ruckman Sam Jacobs departed Adelaide Oval before halftime with a badly rolled ankle, Kangaroos forward Jarrad Waite aggravated a hip injury in Brent Harvey’s milestone game and the Dogs lost Tom Liberatore and Jack Macrae to ankle and hamstring injuries respectively in their loss to Geelong.
Adelaide appear to have the least to worry about after coach Don Pyke reported Jacobs’ injury wasn’t as bad as it seemed at first glance.
But the Bulldogs’ flag campaign doesn’t appear capable of taking too many more injury hits.
“What can you do? It’s hard to laugh because you’re disappointed for the boys who have gone down injured but if you don’t laugh you probably cry,” coach Luke Beveridge said.
“We think we can pull it together and at some point start winning again and hopefully get (to finals) and give ourselves a sniff.
“But a little bit of wind has gone out of our sails.”
The Dogs’ lengthy injury list already included long-term absentee Bob Murphy and other key players such as Matt Suckling, Matthew Boyd, Dale Morris, Tom Campbell and Marcus Adams before the clash against the Cats.
Waite buckled in agony as he kicked his second goal at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night and coach Brad Scott admitted the persistent issue was a concern for his important forward.
“I understand he’s been in the side, then out, then in, then out in quick succession. So for our supporters and members, he looks like he’s just jarred his hip again, the same hip,” coach Brad Scott said after the 23-point win.
“Whether it’s exactly the same injury, I’m not sure.
“But it’s a strange one because you saw how he was functioning right at the start of the game and then five minutes later, without incident, he’s pretty sore.
“We’ll just go and get it scanned again. We were really patient with it at the start and we’re just going to have to reassess how we treat him and when he comes back.”
