Port Adelaide are bracing to lose key defender Trent McKenzie for an prolonged interval however might welcome again as much as half a dozen gamers for the AFL crunch conflict with GWS.
The Power are reeling from a fourth straight loss, this time a 12-point defeat to Geelong on Saturday night time, in a slide that has put their top-two hopes in jeopardy.
The newest setback got here as McKenzie was substituted out with a proper knee damage.
“It’s probably a PCL (posterior cruciate ligament) but we won’t know until we do the scans,” Power coach Ken Hinkley mentioned post-match at GMHBA Stadium.
“But it looked and acted like a PCL, so that’ll be a medium to long-term recovery, and that will be a bit of a challenge for us.”
Port have been struck by sickness forward of the Geelong conflict, with Jeremy Finlayson and Miles Bergman late withdrawals earlier than the primary bounce after Kane Farrell was dominated out on Friday.
Those blows got here with Aliir Aliir and Lachie Jones already unavailable below concussion protocols, and key ahead Charlie Dixon (foot) pulled out of the chosen aspect.
Hinkley is hopeful most, if not all, of these six will return in opposition to the Giants at Adelaide Oval in spherical 22.
“I’d imagine there’s a minimum of five, maybe Charlie, but his injury this week was a little unusual the way it appeared late in the week,” Hinkley mentioned.
“We’ll wait and see what that looks like.”
Hinkley is not able to hit the panic button regardless of the four-match shedding streak casting severe doubt over the Power’s premiership credentials.
The dip in type has come after a club-record 13-match profitable streak.
“I think we’re ok. We’re thereabouts,” Hinkley mentioned.
“We were poor last week (against Adelaide) but either side of that we’ve played Collingwood and Geelong and we played pretty well in both those games without getting a win.
“Ultimately, we set our season up fairly strongly with the run that we received on and now we have to reverse somewhat bit.
“But I’m still confident that we’re a pretty good team.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
