Carlton Blues coach Michael Voss has revealed the club's coaching staff are yet to determine a replacement for Sam Docherty.
The defender suffered a season-ending ACL injury on the weekend during a Round 1 come-from-behind win over the Brisbane Lions.
Subbed out of the game at halftime, it has since been revealed his next possible appearance on an AFL field will be at the start of the 2025 campaign.
Voss said the club was in a good position, with plenty of options in good form as potential players to join the team.
"There are a few different options," the Carlton coach said during a press conference on Monday morning.
"We haven't sat down as a match committee and gone through all those particular options at this point in time. What we're lucky to have is that the guys who are emerging are in pretty good form.
"They get an opportunity then they'll step into the role that we're asking them to play."
Voss said he is hoping a player will stand up and use the opportunity to create their own story this season.
"We appreciate that it becomes the next man in and someone else is going to have to come in and get the job done. Through someone's clear disappointment, we are hoping someone else has a story that comes in and get a job done for us to evolve their own game," Voss added on replacing Docherty.
Voss said he was "gutted" for Docherty.
"We found out early on our return. I'm gutted for him. Certainly levelled me out pretty quick, but he is going to be missed. He is a loved person to us and I think the other thing is we understand the real challenges he has had in his life in most recent times," Voss said.
"Sam isn't looking for any sympathy at all. He will get on with it and be a real pro in his rehab.
"He has been a really important person to us and it won't quite feel the same without him being there with us.
"We continue to support Doc and his next little period of time that he needs to go through. He is only in the early stages of rehab but we have to move on clearly and get our eyes focused on what the next challenge is."
Voss confirmed that Docherty would not have the knee operation until swelling goes down, but that it wouldn't impact the timeline on his return to play at the back-end of his recovery.
"With these ACL's now, they take a couple of weeks to let the swelling to come out of the knee and he will want to have a few days away as well. It doesn't do anything to the timeline at the back-end, they just want the swelling to come out of the knee," Voss said on his recovery.
The coach said Docherty would continue to remain invested in the club during the 2024 campaign.
"He's a pro, he'll definitely turn that around and get his mind fixated on how he returns. He's an incredibly resilient person, we know that. There will be no more invested person than Sam in where we're going as a team. He'll throw everything at it," Voss added.
