Collingwood fans are panicking after star forward Bobby Hill was seen limping at the end of Thursday’s training session.
The gun goalsneak landed awkwardly in a marking contest, clutched at his ankle, then hobbled off the field, sparking immediate concerns from his teammates and supporters.
The Magpies are in the middle of a crippling injury crisis and their forward line has been decimated with Jamie Elliott (vascular) out for a 6-8 week period, Jordan De Goey (abdomen) sidelined for another three weeks and Brody Mihocek (hamstring) out for three weeks.
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That’s on top of the knee injury to key forward Dan McStay who is expected to miss the entire season.
“Don’t want to push the panic button. But Bobby Hill did seem to twist his ankle and hobbled off toward end of training. Hopefully some rest and recovery will help,” one superfan said on social media.
“Panic button pushed here,” another fan said.
Collingwood coach Craig McRae, however, attempted to hose down concerns over Hill and believed the 24-year-old would be OK for Monday’s King’s Birthday match against Melbourne.
“I just spoke to Bobby, he’s fine,” McRae said.
“He just tweaked his ankle a little bit. We’ve got four days before our game and there’ll be no concern there.”
Of bigger worry to Collingwood is the way Melbourne are going to rebound from last week’s shock 92-point loss to Fremantle in Alice Springs.
That result tumbled Melbourne (7-5) to 10th, just behind Collingwood on percentage.
McRae is expecting a fable-like bounce back from the Demons.
“I think what we saw last week was an outlier,” McRae said.
“I was watching the game through the entirety, and I’m going, ‘wow, that’s not Melbourne’.
“And I think they’ll be saying the same.
“When it becomes that acute I think you can react the other way really quickly. You can fix a lot of things quickly.
“We’re anticipating a huff and a puff and a blow the house down — that’s what’s coming. We’ve just got to be ready for that.”
There was talk earlier this week Elliott’s career was in doubt due to a vascular issue that would turn his foot black at times.
McRae brushed off any long-term concerns, believing the classy forward will return in six to eight weeks.
“We got some really good news during the week that the treatment he’s been using is working,” McRae said.
“He’s on the mend and I think he might have had his first running session today.
“Hopefully 6-8 weeks away.”
Reef McInnes (concussion) and Will Hoskin-Elliott (hamstring) are on track to return against the Demons.
Although defending premiers Collingwood are outside of the top eight at the mid-point of the season, McRae isn’t too worried.
“I’ll check out the ladder in Round 24, that’s when it matters the most,” McRae said.
“There’s going to be peaks and troughs for everyone. The true value will be right when it matters.”
– With AAP
