The Gold Coast Suns have confirmed that Wil Powell will miss the remainder of the 2022 season after the young Sun dislocated and fractured his ankle during Sunday's win over Adelaide.
The injury occurred in the third term of Gold Coast's 43-point win over Adelaide on Sunday afternoon, when Powell's leg appeared to buckle after he was tackled while disposing of the ball.
The 22-year-old was in clear pain and a five minute delay in play was required as he was taken from the field on a medi-cab.
Gold Coast's General Manager of Football Performance Wayne Campbell confirmed that the young gun had spent the night in hospital and was looking at a lengthy stint on the sidelines as he recovered.
“It was a pretty severe injury, he’s dislocated and fractured his ankle with a bit of ligament damage in there as well,” Campbell said.
“He spent the night in hospital last night, will be operated on today and will spend a couple more nights in hospital.
“He’s tough and he’s much-loved and we’re looking after him as best we can.
“We’ll put him through a rehab process and are really confident in our medical and high performance department to get him back, but he’ll sit out the rest of the year and we’ll get him up and going for pre-season next year.”
The Suns managed to run out 43-point winners against the Crows in the aftermath of the incident, despite Adelaide culling the lead to just 15 points in the final term. Suns coach Stuart Dew praised his team for how they responded after the sickening injury.
"A couple of guys mentioned they saw it on the scoreboard," Dew said.
"When it's your mate -- and everyone knows that Powelly lives for footy - for a little period there was emotionally a little bit of an effect.
"It's only human that when a bad one (injury) like that happens, there's a little period there where they're on the back foot.
"They had the maturity to be able to refocus and go again."
Gold Coast co-captain Jarrod Witts spoke to Fox Footy after the match, confirming that the injury to the popular teammate did have an effect on the team as they tried to close out the last game of the round.
"Wil's such a good clubman and brings such good energy to our footy club and we love him," Witts said.
"Hopefully it's not too bad but it didn't look too good.
"We probably lulled there for a bit after the injury but we were able to get it back on our terms."
Now set to be sidelined for the remainder of the year, Powell will join fellow Suns Ben King and Lachie Weller on the long-term injury list.