Collingwood forward Dan McStay is in danger of being sidelined until the bye after injuring his knee in the Magpies’ Anzac Day victory over Essendon.
The Magpies were confident on Friday night that McStay had avoided damage to his anterior cruciate ligament and that he had hurt the medial collateral ligament in his left knee.
Dan McStay was subbed out with a knee injury.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
Scans over the weekend will reveal the extent of the injury though it’s likely the Pies will have to make do without McStay for at least the short-term future.
“Dan’s got an MCL [injury] of some degree,” Magpies coach Craig McRae said. “We don’t know until we get it scanned. I’ll give you some context, ‘Howie’ [Jeremy Howe] did that and played the next week and they could be out for four to six weeks, we don’t know, we’ll know more tomorrow. I don’t want to crystal ball it.
“We’re hoping it’s on the minor side.”
The upper end of that timeframe would result in McStay being out until after the club’s bye in round 14.
It is a blow for McStay, who missed the Pies’ premiership two years ago after tearing his ACL in the preliminary final.
On Friday, McStay left the field in the third quarter after a marking contest in Collingwood’s goal square where he lost his footing. He emerged holding his left knee then hobbled off to the bench and was subbed out minutes later.
The circumstances of the incident did not appear to be typical of an ACL rupture.
McStay had a quiet game in conditions not suitable for big men but he plays an important role in the Pies team as a forward who can relieve Darcy Cameron in the ruck.
His injury was the only sour note on a day the Magpies consolidated their position at the top of both the ladder and premiership calculations.
There was drama in the coaches’ box in the third term when the communications system broke down, forcing both teams to use mobile phones to communicate with the bench, with AFL approval.
The technical fault hurt the developing Bombers more than the seasoned Pies, who drew on the experience of their large number of senior players to steer the ship in lieu of direction from the box.
“It was pretty frustrating,” Scott said. “That’s as helpless as I’ve felt in a quarter of footy when we can’t communicate with the bench. Every time I went to go down to the bench they said it was back on, and then came back off. We couldn’t work out what was going on.”
From what McRae said, the mood in the Pies’ camp was calmer.
“When you have a team that’s performing, you’ve got to get out of the way sometimes – the great Leigh Matthews taught me that way back,” McRae said.
“It’s a big snowball, he used to call it, going down the hill. It gets bigger with more momentum, get out of the way of it. I’ve certainly been trusting these guys. They know what to do in the moment, so quite often when that happens just relax, we’re OK, let the players be.
“We give them the keys and they drive the car really well at the moment.”
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