Essendon senior coach Brad Scott is hopeful key players Jayden Laverde and Liam McMahon will recover quickly from the respective injuries the pair suffered during the Bombers two-point loss to St Kilda on Friday night.
Laverde was medically substituted from the match in the early stages of the second half after appearing to suffer a "nasty" corky, while McMahon's hand was stepped on during the final quarter.
“I think [Laverde] will be OK, but he just got a nasty knee in the leg, and he just couldn't function," Scott said post-game.
"He doesn't concede ever, Jayden, and we conceded a goal because he couldn't run. We just had no choice but to sub him out.
"[McMahon] got sort of stomped on, we were concerned about his wrist, but it's not his wrist, it's his hand...
"We'll send him off [for scans]. It looks okay, there's a bit of swelling there, so we hold our breath a bit."
Despite the injury toll continuing to mount for the club, Scott praised his group's positive mindset that he believes has helped the side remain competitive even with a wildly inexperienced playing group.
"We've certainly had our challenges, but what I've been rapt about is that no one at the club has been talking about 'poor us' or 'how unfair is this'," Scott said post-game.
"We look at what's in front of us and try to improve and move forward. We're asking a lot of first, second, third, fourth and fifth gamers to play key roles in our team. It's really encouraging they can execute plans, play really important roles and can do it over a long period of the game."
Scott, while disappointed the Bombers fell short of the reward of four premiership points, was ecstatic with the energy and intent of his young players, an encouraging sign for 2026 and beyond.
"You can't execute a plan unless you have a really high level of effort and intent, so that bit I'm ecstatic with. There was a lot to like," Scott said.
"We're really trying to improve parts of our game and we really did take steps forward in a lot of areas tonight. There's a lot to like in terms of the foundations of the way we want to play.
"Our players are doing an incredible job at trying to keep the train on the tracks at the moment. It sounds a bit morbid, but from my perspective, if you can do that when things are really difficult, it's when you can improve the most.
"Because I think, in this game, you can see young players have moments, and a lot of our young players have moments, but they fought it right out as well. That is really pleasing."
The Bombers will now set their sights on the final round of the season, taking on Carlton in a Thursday night clash at the MCG next week.
