Lions worried over Rockliff injuries

Tom Rockliff’s Brisbane Lions teammates are concerned about their captain’s ongoing injury issues after his latest hamstring setback, midfielder Dayne Beams says.

Rockliff is expected to miss two to three weeks due to a fresh hamstring strain suffered in the heavy AFL loss to Port Adelaide on Sunday.

Scans later on Tuesday are expected to reveal the full extent of the damage but it is not believed to be connected to the back and nerve-related problems he has battled over the past 12 months, which have trigged their own injuries.

Beams, who made his return from a long-term injury lay-off at the weekend, said the whole team shares in Rockliff’s frustration.

“It’s a worry because he’s our captain and the leader of our footy club.

“Obviously we want him out there as much as we can and I know it’s frustrating for him that these little things keep happening but that’s the game we play.

“Some things are just bad luck – you can do all the things during in the week to try and prevent it but you run out on gameday and unfortunately some of these things just happen.

“Unfortunately for Rock, it’s just happening a bit more frequently than it probably has previously in his career.”

Rockliff’s absence will heap further pressure on Brisbane’s under-performing midfield unit, which came in for criticism from coach Justin Leppitsch following the 77-point loss to the Power.

Beams agreed their failure to win the ball was putting their young defence under huge pressure.

“I think we went down 18 in clearances, 12 from the centre. That’s going to put any defence under a lot of pressure and our young blokes down there really struggle when the ball’s coming in quickly,” he said.

“That’s on us, we’ve got to fix that and make it a lot easier.”

The Lions host fellow strugglers Collingwood on Saturday night.

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