While St Kilda's season has gotten off to a dream start under returned coach Ross Lyon, the Saints have received another injury blow after scans confirmed skipper Jack Steele sustained a fractured collarbone during their Saturday night victory.
Reports arising on Sunday morning claim that the fearless captain will have surgery on Monday and is expected to miss a month of action.
The Saints ran out 51-point winners under the roof at Marvel Stadium against the Bulldogs, who have now slumped to a 0-2 start, but may find the Round 2 victory soured by the injury to their two-time best and fairest.
Steele left the ground in the third term with a right shoulder concern but returned and played out the game, finishing the evening with 29 disposals. Last season, an injury to Steele's AC joint in the same shoulder saw the skipper miss four games.
Speaking post-game, Saints coach Ross Lyon said the club was remaining hopeful.
"We're hopeful, but he will go for scans tomorrow, so fingers crossed," Lyon said.
"Is it an AC, is it a hairline fracture or something? We don't know, but as soon as results come to hand we'll let you know."
On Sunday, SEN reported that scans have confirmed a fracture to Steele's collarbone/AC joint, an injury that will see the 27-year-old spend weeks on the sidelines.
โIt's a massive blow for St Kilda, after such a positive first two weeks of the year, my understanding is it's a collarbone and possibly an AC joint, which would leave him out for several weeks," SEN's Tom Morris reported.
St Kilda has since confirmed that Steele will spend at least the next four weeks on the sidelines, missing clashes against Essendon, Gold Coast, Collingwood and Carlton at a minimum.
Earlier on Saturday, there were other injury concerns, with Richmond star Dustin Martin subbed from his side's 32-point win over Adelaide.
The Brownlow Medallist was replaced by Rhyan Mansell in the final term as injury speculation swirled, but Richmond coach Damien Hardwick was quick to clarify the substitution.
"We had a couple of boys that we were sort of talking about with regard to what does it look like," Hardwick said.
"His (benching) was just from a management point of view. We'll see how that pans out.
"Obviously we've got a short break like Collingwood, but we'll work our way through those."
Richmond will face Collingwood next in Round 3, a Friday night blockbuster at the MCG, while St Kilda will take on Essendon in the club's 150th celebration match at the same venue on the following night.
