Essendon livewire Orazio Fantasia's season could be over after scans revealed the extent of a hamstring strain which he suffered in the first quarter of his sides win over Carlton on Saturday.
The club's High Performance Manager Justin Crow told BomberTV that the strain will keep the forward out for the next five to six weeks despite the muscle not being torn.
"At the time it looked like quite a serious hamstring," Crow said.
“The scan results show it’s a grade two plus, which means he’s going to miss five to six weeks.
“He’ll need everything to go right and we’ll start to progress him up as he’s able over the coming week.”
In more positive news for the clubs forward stocks, spearhead Joe Daniher was cleared of any structural damage after he hyper-extended his knee during the match.
“His knee hyper-extended and sometimes when that happens you can get some really bad injuries,” Crow said.
“Fortunately for Joe and us he got away with it.
“He was a little bit sore in his knee but he was able to play out the game and he’s looking pretty good this week and he’ll train tomorrow.”
James Kelly and rookie Andrew McGrath will be available for selection against Adelaide after being rested against the Blues last week.
“Both of those guys are jumping out of their skin, they really sharpened up over the weekend, they’re looking forward to training tomorrow and we’ll expect them to give us a real burst on the weekend,” Crow said.
