Essendon duo Darcy Parish and Patrick Ambrose are both set to miss some time for the Bombers, after the pair picked up injuries over the weekend.
Parish was playing in the VFL when he sustained a thumb injury, and will need need to undergo surgery to repair his thumb given the severity of the initial incident.
“Darcy Parish, who played a good game, has sustained a fracture to the base of his thumb – which is called a Bennett’s fracture,” Essendon's Physical Performance Manager Justin Crow told essendonfc.com.au.
“(It) needs to be operated on, because that can become arthritic very quickly otherwise.
“The bad news for Darcy is that the normal return for those is around eight weeks – some players do a little bit better, some a bit slower.
“We’ll be checking with the surgeon after he’s had that procedure and getting a better feel for how long it’s going to take to get Darcy back on the park.
“The silver lining there (is) that we can really work hard on Darcy’s running ability through that period.”
The Bombers will also be Ambrose until at least after their round 13 bye, after he pulled up with a sore calf following Essendon's win over GWS last Saturday night.
“The other one was Pat Ambrose who also played the game with calf tightness (and), like Tom [Bellchambers], finished the game," Crow said.
“However, Pat was not as lucky, he does have a strain in his soleus. That means that he will now enter rehabilitation and we’re expecting him to be available for the VFL match after the bye, which is a Sunday as opposed to the Thursday when the AFL (team) plays West Coast.”
In some good news for Bomber fans, key defender Michael Hurley is likely to take his place in the line-up ahead of the Dreamtime at the 'G clash with Richmond on Saturday.
“Hurls did a really good session on Saturday, we’re happy with how he trained," Crow added.
“He did a match volume at match speeds, he’ll train fully this week and be expected to be available.”
