Melbourne have confirmed that Harrison Petty is expected to miss four to six weeks after suffering a foot injury in Saturday evening's win over Hawthorn.
Petty was substituted from the 54-point win after suffering the injury early, with scans now confirming that he has sprained a ligament in his foot.
The 23-year-old has played eight games for the Demons this season, kicking two majors in Round 9's win before being replaced on the ground.
The club confirmed the news on Monday through club doctor Laura Lallenec.
“He got his toe jammed between another player and the ground, so he had scans yesterday and that did show a sprain of one of the ligaments in his mid-foot,” Lallenec said.
“He will remain in the boot this week and the good news is that nothing is ruptured, it's more of a strain, so we just need to get some time for healing of that ligament.”
In better news, the club is confident star Christian Petracca will be right to face Port Adelaide on Friday night after suffering a rolled ankle in Round 9.
Petracca was sent for scans to assess the damage with Lallenec confirming that the 27-year-old had only tweaked his ankle.
“The scans yesterday thankfully confirmed that he just tweaked that ankle area,” Lallenec said.
“He will need to get through training tomorrow and through the rest of the week to play, but we're fairly hopeful at this stage that there shouldn't be any issue with him playing this Friday.”
Melbourne will travel to Adelaide to take on Port on Friday night, scheduled for 7:50pm AEST at Adelaide Oval.