Star Demon Christian Petracca has suffered a hairline fracture of his fibula but is expected to continue to feature in Melbourne's premiership defence.
Petracca suffered the injury in Friday night’s loss to Sydney, dealing with a calf issue in the aftermath of attempting a smother against Lance Franklin in the first term.
The qualifying final loss leaves Melbourne to face Brisbane in a semi final in a week’s time.
Both the club and Petracca are confident the 26-year-old will be right to play through the injury, with the do or die clash looming.
The Norm Smith Medallist appeared visibly hampered by injury during the 22-point loss, still managing to collect 4 disposals.
General Manager Football Performance, Alan Richardson, provided an update on Petracca on Saturday, confirming that the injury poses no risk to his spot in the team.
“The advice from our medical team is that a fracture of this nature will not rule Christian out of selection for our semi final," Richardson said.
“The fracture poses no further risk to Christian and will not impact his ability to play.
“What will pose more of a challenge for Christian is the corky he sustained to his calf in a collision that occurred in the first quarter and hampered his movement for the majority of the match against Sydney.
“Obviously Christian will need to tick some boxes throughout training this week but we are confident that he will be ready to go come Friday.”
Meanwhile, the Demons are awaiting results of scans for both Jake Melksham and Bailey Fritsch, who are dealing with respective knee concerns.
Charlie Spargo remains in hospital awaiting specialist advice after copping a whack to the throat. The reigning premiers remain confident that the quartet will be right to face the Lions, per SEN's Sam Edmund.
