St Kilda youngster Hugh Goddard faces 12 months on the sidelines, after the club confirmed last night that he has a ruptured Achilles tendon.

Goddard suffered the injury in the second quarter of the Saints' 88-point loss to the Crows at Adelaide Oval on Sunday. It was the 19-year-old's first game for the season.

“Hughie’s a bad one. He’s ruptured his Achilles tendon. They are often 12 months. We’ll be hoping for better news but that looks like its going to be it, so really disappointing," Coach Alan Richardson said after the match.

"Hughie’s story has been one of persistence, he hasn’t been able to get in the team before this week and we were looking for him to play some footy for us and that won’t happen now."

Forward Paddy McCartin was also stretchered off after a collision with teammate Jack Newnes and Crow Luke Brown.

“He’s in hospital. He’s got a pretty heavy knock to the head. It looked like Newnes got him and then he might of got another one on the way down and possibly a bit of neck stuff in there too. As you can appreciate, we’re being really conservative," Richardson said.

Comments are closed.