Adelaide forward Mitch McGovern will miss the next two months of football, after suffering an ankle sprain in the final seconds of the Crows' Showdown loss to Port Adelaide.
McGovern kicked what looked to be the winning goal with under one minute remaining, before Steven Motlop broke the hearts of Crows fans with the final goal of the game.
In the lead up to Motlop's winner, McGovern was involved in a big collision with teammate Richard Douglas, which has resulted in McGovern's injury.
“Mitch had that collision with Dougy late in the final quarter against Port,” Adelaide's GM of High Performance Matt Hass told afc.com.au.
“First of all, we were treating him after the match from a head knock, which he presented with. Unfortunately, later in the weekend, he reported some ankle soreness which we scanned on Monday and revealed the high ankle sprain.
“He’s since seen a specialist and we’ve decided to take conservative measures at the moment. We’ll see how he presents over time and rehab him accordingly, so he’s looking to spend a period of time out.
“Luckily no surgery required at this point so that’s pleasing for Mitch, which means he’ll be back slightly earlier than the surgical option.”
Taylor Walker, Sam Jacobs, Riley Knight, Curtly Hampton, Kyle Hartigan, Sam Gibson and Alex Keath should all be available for selection this weekend, however they must all pass fitness tests later in the week.
The Crows still don't have a return date marked alongside midfielder Brad Crouch, although Hass still believes he'll play later in the year.
“Brad’s progressing slowly. We’ve got him on a strength and conditioning program now just to build up that strength and tolerance around his hip and pelvis,” Hass said.
“At this point, there’s absolutely no surgery required, it’s just a slow and steady build-up for Brad to make sure he ticks a few important boxes before he really starts to build up his training load and we expect to see him later on in the year.”
