Essendon key defender Michael Hurley will miss at least one week for the Bombers, after suffering a hamstring strain during his side's loss to Carlton on Saturday.
Hurley failed to play out the match after sustaining the injury late, and will miss at least one game, and very likely two.
“Michael Hurley actually didn’t finish the game, he finished the game on the bench,” Essendon's Physical Performance Manager Justin Crow told SKINS Injury Update on essendonfc.com.au on Tuesday.
“He came off with maybe three or four minutes to go with a cramp in his hamstrings.
“Obviously we scanned that, he’s got a hamstring strain. It’s a bleed from the interface between the hamstring muscles with very little muscle fibre involvement, which is a good thing in that it helps the prognosis.
“He’ll definitely miss this week, most likely he’ll miss two games, but it’s not impossible he’ll do a little bit better or a little bit slower depending on how he tracks over the next few sessions.”
Essendon will also be without young defender Andrew McGrath, who will miss the Bombers' clash with the Cats on Saturday due to a calf injury.
“Andy, out of our block of three matches, came away after finishing the game against the Hawks with calf tightness in both sides,” Crow added.
“In the end he was left with tightness in one side, so rather than training him we checked what was going on (and) it’s a small bleed in that calf, which is a low-grade soleus strain.
“Obviously with Andy he needed to miss last week, he’ll also miss this coming weekend and then depending on how he’s progressing we’ll be looking at his best day to return.”
Crow also confirmed Jake Stringer has had scans on his back, but is adamant they are just precautionary.
“Jake has a little bit of back stiffness out of the game (against the Blues).
“(There is) nothing we’re particularly concerned by, we just want to get a really good idea of what’s going on in there like we would with all of our players as we learn more and more about Jake and his body.”