Melbourne remains confident that gun midfielder Clayton Oliver will take his place in Simon Goodwin's 23-man team in Round 18 despite scans confirming the 24-year-old had sustained a broken thumb during Thursday night's loss at Kardinia Park.
Oliver came off second best during a groundball contest with Cats skipper Joel Selwood after the veteran laid his boot into the Brownlow fancy's right thumb.
Initial assessments from within the club's four walls allayed fears of anything more than heavy bruising to the Murray Bushrangers product, however, further reports published by News Corp have claimed that Oliver will go under the knife on Saturday after scans revealed a break.
Having succumbed to their fourth loss from their last six outings, the Demons will be desperate to atone for their recent sins when they travel to face Port Adelaide in the top end next Sunday.
And with the prospect of hard-nosed opposition in Travis Boak and Ollie Wines on the other side of the ball, red and blue backers will hold hope that their clearance king will be in the mix.
Still, according to Melbourne's GM of AFL Performance, Alan Richardson, the reigning premiers are still on the fence ahead of their flight to Darwin.
“Unfortunately, scan results have shown a fracture in Clayton’s thumb, which will require surgery and most likely rule him out of selection for Round 18,” the former St Kilda coach delineated.
“The good news is that if he does miss the game with Port, we expect he will be back and ready to go for Round 19.
“He will be able to continue his conditioning work and we will look to integrate him back into light skills following his surgery.”
Having strung together 127 straight games for the Demons, Oliver is currently pursuing Melbourne great Jim Stynes for the league's consecutive games record - a marker currently set at 244 by the late Irishman.
Ironically, Stynes' streak was snapped after sustaining a hand break of his own during his final season in 1998.
Oliver's recent form has him in contention to join the late ruckman in rare air at the MCG, with the redhead acting as the Redlegs' latest Brownlow hope.
Stynes shocked the football world in September of 1991 after taking home 'Charlie' after only 109 games following his choice to jet south from the Emerald Isle.
Should the Demons' No.13 face a luckless count later this year, he will have a further eight seasons up his sleeve to salute after signing an extension that will keep him at the league's oldest club until the cessation of the 2030 AFL season.
