Despite holding off a plucky St Kilda side to claim its fifth win of the 2024 season, Port Adelaide appears destined to enter the season's opening Showdown without the service of three integral stars.
While able to keep themselves at arm's length of the Saints to collect a 10-point win on Friday night, further entrenching their top-eight standing, Ken Hinkley's charges look certain to be dulled, with each of Sam Powell-Pepper, Aliir Aliir and skipper Connor Rozee suffering injury setbacks on the night.
After buckling under his own weight in innocuous circumstances, Powell-Pepper was shown on the television broadcast receiving close attention to his knee, with the structure of the 26-year-old's joint tested thoroughly.
And though the club initially held hopes that the former first-rounder had escaped serious injury, the result of scans, released on Saturday, have shown that Powell-Pepper has ruptured his ACL and will miss the remainder of the season.
"We are incredibly disappointed for Sam," Port Adelaide Head of Medical Services Tim O'Leary told Power Media.
"Sam is a dedicated and diligent athlete who attacks his training with unrelenting intensity, and will no doubt approach his rehab the same way. He will continue to be as involved as he can, as a leader and important member of our playing group.
"It's such a tough injury for a footballer to go through. We're all behind him and we know he'll come out the other side stronger and more determined."
Aliir's night, and his subsequent Showdown hopes, came to a close after the stopper was forced from the ground with a concussion, subsequently entering protocols.
For Rozee, the club's first-year captain, a return-to-play date remains ambiguous, with the All-Australian suffering a hamstring setback.
Imagine on Saturday confirmed a low-grade tear, with Port refusing to put a line through Rozee's chances of featuring in the all-South Australian clash.
Last night, Hinkley shed some light on all three of the ailments, with the veteran coach previously upbeat about the prospect of each setback.
"As it falls, Aliir concussion so he'll miss next week, he'll go into concussion protocols, looked pretty good to be honest when he came off but did the test and didn't quite get through that," Hinkley said.
"Connor has got soft signs of a hamstring, but we'll get a scan and be clear with what that looks like.
"He went back on, couldn't stay there, so obviously it's leaning itself towards a hamstring which will mean he'll miss a little bit of time, probably.
"And 'Pep' we're sitting back waiting and hopeful to see what scans look like with that because it looked a bit nasty with his knee.
"The medical report is that they're a little bit hopeful, but we'll wait and see again what the scan says. As soon as we know the detail, we'll share that."
The Power and the Crows will do battle in the year's opening Showdown at the Adelaide Oval next Thursday night, meaning that even the fittest of Hinkley's charges will have just six days at their disposal for recovery.
