East Geelong is awaiting confirmation on the seriousness of injuries suffered by star forward Zac Smith and young gun Ben Crombie during Saturday’s 130-point win over Corio at Richmond Crescent.
Smith damaged a finger early in the third quarter but played out the match to finish with 11 goals and move to within one goal of Andrew Boseley in the race for the Wayne Tyquin Medal as league-leading goalkicker.
“He’s got a fracture in one of his fingers and there’s some potential ligament damage as well,” coach Ned Aulsebrook confirmed.
“He’s going to have to book in and see a surgeon, but Zach’s pretty tough. He’s assured me that it’s not going to stop him from playing.
“He did it early in the second half on the weekend, and then we didn’t really hear about it until after the game. And clearly it didn’t really impact his ability to mark and kick goals.
“Hopefully, it remains that way, and it might be something that he looks at getting fixed up after the season.
“We’ll know a little bit more once he gets in and sees the surgeon
Crombie will also undergo scans after being forced off the ground with an ankle issue.
A member of Geelong’s VFL development squad, Crombie was set to be a key player in Monday’s interleague clash against Colac and District.
“He was pretty shattered on the bench on Saturday because he was really keen to go out and show his wares on the big stage,” Aulsebrook said.
“And he’s really enjoyed the whole process; I know he had a good time training on Wednesday night.
“He was really excited about running around with some like-minded individuals in a Monday afternoon standalone game. And
He’s had the X-rays. He went straight to hospital after the game and (there is) no break – just a bit of bone bruising.
He’ll have some more scans later in the week to see if there’s any other soft tissue damage to ligaments and things like that.
“But hopefully, fingers crossed, it just stays at that bone bruising stage and we just monitor it from here.”
Fellow interleague squad member Ben Mulvahil received a knock to his knee against the Devils but is likely to be right to represent the Raiders if selected.
“I think it happened at the end of the second quarter, and he probably iced it halfway through the last,” Aulsebrook said. “It wasn’t something that fully limited him at all.
“He’ll just see how it goes at training. He’s another one who’s pretty keen to get stuck into the interleague process.
“He’ll be down there tomorrow night testing it out.”
In better news for the Eagles, who sit a game clear of Bell Post Hill in third spot, captain John McIntyre is a chance to return for the post-bye meeting with Geelong West.
Tim Lee and Noah Charman haven’t been ruled out of taking on the Giants, but Caleb Ezard and Jayden Fanning will remain sidelined.
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