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Jamie Elliott is facing up to half the season on the sideline after scans revealed the Collingwood forward had fractured his leg during Thursday night’s win over Carlton.
The livewire goalsneak kicked two majors early but was taken off in the second quarter of the match, which the Pies won 16.10 (106) to 13.7 (85), when he went down clutching his lower leg.
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It was confirmed on Friday Elliott had fractured his fibula — an injury which is expected to rub the 28-year-old out for months. Collingwood is also awaiting further scans to determine the extent of a possible right ankle injury.
“At this stage it is likely that Jamie will need an extended period on the sidelines,” Collingwood football manager Graham Wright said.
“We’ll know more once the operation and further scans have been completed but the unfortunate expectation is that he will miss two or three months of football from here.
“He’ll do all the right things to be back as soon as possible and we look forward to having him back in the second half of the season.”
It’s a cruel blow for Elliott, whose career has stalled on multiple occasions because of back and hamstring injuries, while he also missed the entire 2018 season with a left ankle problem.
Carlton faces tough questions after horror start
Carlton has now started 0-2 nine seasons in a row and coach David Teague has implored his troops to be more “ruthless” as they aim to end a lengthy finals drought.
“I have absolute belief in this group, we’ll get there,” Teague said after the loss to Collingwood.
“I am not going to lose any belief in this group. I know our fans will probably be a bit frustrated, they (players) are hurting, they’re disappointed, we all are.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do, and we need to do it.”
The additions of Zac Williams and Adam Saad were supposed to inject some much-needed explosiveness into the Blues’ line-up, while expectation is high of gun midfielder Patrick Cripps.
Teague indicated small forward Eddie Betts may play his first game in round three, and highlighted Carlton’s defence as the biggest issue across the opening two matches.
“I thought early on we were getting a shot and it would go down the other end and they would score,” Teague said.
“Our ability to defend our direct opponent and/or locate him when the ball was in dispute and understanding the risk/reward … I think we just need to tighten that up.
“We need to have a little bit more of a ruthless mentality around our defence.”
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