Jay Dahlhaus will remember his Leopold debut for all the wrong reasons, after being hospitalised following an incident during Saturday’s six-point loss to Grovedale at Leopold Memorial Park.
The Werribee premiership player, who was released by the Tigers to play for his interchange club, spent Saturday night in hospital after he suffered a lacerated liver after being tackled during the second quarter.
K rock Football understands the incident was looked at by AFL Barwon’s Match Review Panel, with a finding expected tomorrow (Tuesday).
“He’s in good spirits after what was a pretty harrowing time for him for a little period there – he was in a lot of pain,” Hughes said
“But he’s ended up with some pretty good news – it could have been a lot worse.
“Internally, they weren’t quite sure what was going on. He got some scans done and ended up finding out it was a laceration to the liver.
“Not requiring surgery, but a bit of a lengthy recovery, which is not ideal, but he’s trying to look into the positives out of it all.”
Dahlhaus isn’t the only Lion facing an extended stint on the sideline, with defender Ziggy Lee suffering a dislocated shoulder early in the first quarter.
Lee, who joined Leopold from Ballarat league club Redan during the off-season, was also taken to hospital.
“They were unable to get it back in at the ground, and he had to go to hospital to get that put back in,” Hughes said.
“He’s going in for scans this week and will see a shoulder specialist around whether he does require surgery.
“It’s all off the back of what the scan gives us.”
Despite the loss taking some of the shine off club great Marcus Thompson’s 200th game, Hughes was pleased with how the Lions fought to the end after trailing by as much as 26 points midway through the final quarter.
“I spoke to the boys about this after the game,” he said. “We love the fight, and we love the ability to keep ourselves in the contest and not roll over.
“And that was a big conversation after Round Zero against Joeys. We didn’t want to let that happen again – that’s not us.
“Regardless of what position we are in the game, with men down or whatever the game’s giving us, we really want to make sure that we don’t just roll over.”
However, Hughes concedes it’s four points that have gone begging for the Lions, who face South Barwon this week ahead of their first bye the following round.
“Credit to Grovey, they came and played really well,” he said. “For us, it was one that we felt slipped away,
“And we came up against an opposition this week that’s going to be another challenge.”
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