Essendon are going through a possible ruck disaster forward of the blockbuster AFL conflict with Geelong as Andrew Phillips comes underneath scrutiny for a excessive bump on Adelaide’s Reilly O’Brien.
First-choice ruckman Sam Draper is more likely to stay sidelined for the fifth-versus-eighth showdown at GMHBA Stadium on Saturday night time as he makes an attempt to beat a hip situation.
And a suspension for Phillips may drive the Bombers to name on eight-game tall Nick Bryan to shoulder the ruck load towards Cats premiership veteran Rhys Stanley.
Phillips ran previous the ball and made contact to O’Brien’s head with a bump within the ultimate minute of Essendon’s spectacular win over Adelaide.
O’Brien was not severely damage within the incident.
Phillips will be taught his destiny on Monday when the league’s match overview officer delivers his evaluation.
“We want our ruckmen to shepherd and I haven’t looked at it in detail on whether he got him high or not, but the impact didn’t look huge,” Essendon coach Brad Scott mentioned.
“We’ll let the MRO take care of that.”
Bryan has performed simply two video games this season – most lately towards Fremantle in spherical 15 – and was substituted out of each.
The 21-year-old was on the emergency record towards Adelaide.
Cult hero Draper has missed all three of Essendon’s video games for the reason that mid-season bye and there may be nonetheless no readability round his return to motion.
“The goal is just to build him up to main training and then we can have an accurate assessment of when he’ll come back,” Scott mentioned.
“But I can’t see it being this week.”
The Bombers have additional harm issues over defender Jordan Ridley, who may have scans on the left knee he hyperextended in a marking contest towards the Crows.
Ridley had the joint strapped and briefly returned to the sphere on Sunday however was substituted out of the match minutes later.
Scott mentioned Ridley in all probability had some bone bruising, placing him unsure for the Geelong conflict.
“The docs can’t give me a definitive diagnosis at the moment, but the fact they thought (the knee) was structurally OK and Rids wanted to give it a go, that gives you a bit of confidence,” Scott mentioned.
“But there are no guarantees until we get that scan.”
Scott additionally tried to dampen issues over star defender Mason Redman’s hamstring situation, saying the unsigned free agent “should be fine”.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
