Collingwood will likely lose utility Harry Perryman for the next few weeks with a hamstring injury, while scans will confirm the severity of Steele Sidebottom's hand, and Darcy Cameron's ankle.
The Pies battled willfully through Thursday night, almost stealing the victory from Hawthorn in a thriller at the MCG, despite having limited bench rotations.
Perryman, who was tasked with manning Nick Watson, went down before half-time, while Sidebottom played through a swollen hand, which he believes is a burst blood vessel, not a broken hand.
Cameron was limping for large parts of the night, but is a watch ahead of a nine-day break until Geelong in Round 9.
"[Perryman's] a tough lad, this one. I said, 'how is it?' He said, 'pretty good'. In nine days' time, I'm not sure. We'll obviously scan it and work our way through it," Pies coach Craig McRae said.
"[The hand] looks pretty swollen for Steele, we needed him to do a bit of a job on (James) Sicily, and he fought through that for the team.
"I think Darcy has an ankle. We're not sure, we'll get a scan tomorrow. We'll work through what that looks like.
"I'm watching the last 10 minutes, and they looked cooked. This is a hard game we're playing. They're sore. We'll get a bit of a breather now to get our bodies back in check, but it's a hard game to play, at AFL level, backing up after four or five days."
The Pies will welcome back veterans Jeremy Howe and Scott Pendlebury, and will hope Beau McCreery overcomes general soreness to face the Cats.
The Hawks had their own injury woes, with co-captain James Sicily very sore with an ankle injury.
Sicily came from the ground, but with limited rotations, coach Sam Mitchell opted to put him up forward as a decoy.
"They said he could come back on, but that he was a little bit sore, so putting him defence might be an issue," Mitchell said.
"We took a bit of a punt and put him in the front half. He just wasn't moving quite as well as we would have liked. You never know with an ankle until you wake up the next day or the next couple of days.
"We've got a seven-day break, we're over in Perth to get the Dockers. He'll rest up in the next day or two. I assume at this stage he won't be ruled out. We'll take him over, certainly, and we'll give him every chance to get that up. Fingers crossed."
However, the injuries didn't stop at players, with Hawthorn's trainer and physio Andrew Lambert understood to have hurt his hamstring.
High tension at the MCG. Scores tight in Q4. All to play for.
And a stadium holds its breath as the world's unluckiest trainer slips over... twice 🫣 #AFLPiesHawks pic.twitter.com/ofJubS2lAM
— Fox Footy (@FOXFOOTY) April 30, 2026
In the final term, Lambert attempted to hurry from the ground to clear the path as the Pies bounced out of defence, but slipped on the MCG turf.
He looked proppy as he picked himself up from the ground, only to slip over as the ball neared him.
