Alastair Clarkson has ruled out his Vice Captain Jaeger O’Meara from taking part in tomorrow’s clash against the Crows.

O’Meara broke his hand early in the Hawks’ Round 12 game against West Coast and bravely played out the game, requiring surgery in the following days.

“Given where our seasons at and that we can’t qualify for finals, it’s foolish to take any risks with that,” Clarkson said in his press conference this morning, when asked if O’Meara would play this week.

“His hands are an important part of his craft, and we’ll take it as long as we need to.

“We were hopeful it would only be the one week, but he’s had a lot of swelling.

“What we do know is that it’s going repair really well, but we don’t want to put him at risk prematurely.

The Hawks will take on the Crows tomorrow night, just five days after doing battle with the Bombers. On the flip side, Adelaide has had ample rest, heading into Tuesday’s clash following a nine-day lay off.

Responding to this discrepancy, Clarkson’s opinion was clear: it doesn’t matter.

“We speak about the swings and roundabouts, and this is another one.”

“I can only think how difficult it’s been in this environment to get a fixture up and running in the first place, let alone worrying about who’s got the breaks and that sort of stuff.

“We’ve had the bum steer this time perhaps, but another time we’ll be the fortunate benefactors of that.

“You just roll with the punches.

“We’ve got no complaints about any of that. We’ve got more issues with our own club and how we can play some better footy.

“We’ve got more issues to concern ourselves with about how we’re going, than worrying about five day breaks or nine day breaks, we’ll just go with whatever is put in front of us.”