HAWTHORN is confident highly-rated youngster Denver Grainger-Barras has avoided structural damage to a knee injury sustained on Sunday, though the club is unclear on the severity of an ankle injury to fellow emerging talent Will Day.
Day was forced to be substituted out of Sunday's 29-point defeat to Richmond, having appeared to twist his ankle while on the receiving end of a heavy tackle from Tigers forward Josh Caddy.
The 19-year-old limped from the field under the assistance of club medical staff just prior to the three-quarter time interval and was immediately taken into the rooms, failing to reappear for the remainder of the contest.
It was a bitter blow for the Hawks, with the former No.13 draft pick starting the campaign strongly following a breakout maiden season in the AFL system that was celebrated with a top-10 finish in the club's best and fairest last year.
"I haven't checked with the doctors as yet," Hawthorn Coach Alastair Clarkson said afterwards.
"Obviously, the docs assessed him to be serious enough to have to come out of the game, so we'll get that scanned. It's an ankle, (but) we don't know whether that will be zero weeks, one week or six weeks."
Day's substitution had followed a knee injury suffered by Grainger-Barras in Box Hill's VFL practice match against Richmond earlier in the morning, with the key defender landing awkwardly in a marking contest.
However, Hawthorn is confident the 195cm youngster – who is yet to make his AFL debut after being recruited to the club with pick No.6 in last year's NAB AFL Draft – has avoided serious damage.
"He's got a bit of a knee injury," Clarkson said.
"Once again, we'll get it scanned. They think that structurally it's sound, but I think he just landed awkwardly and hyperextended it a little bit. Once again, we'll get that scanned and see how it is."
Richmond laid the groundwork for its comfortable victory with a fast start, holding Hawthorn at arm's length throughout the remainder of the contest before Dustin Martin again produced the finishing touches with a scintillating final quarter.
The three-time Norm Smith Medallist finished with 28 disposals, seven marks, one goal and 11 score involvements in another superb performance, backing up his remarkable round one effort against Carlton.
Martin had been tagged throughout the afternoon by 38-year-old veteran Shaun Burgoyne, who was deployed by Clarkson in an unusual stopping role that even surprised his Tigers counterpart Damien Hardwick.
"It was interesting at the start," Hardwick said.
"They had him (on Martin) and Liam Shiels started at half-back as well, so it was an interesting tactic. We didn't see it coming, obviously. But I thought Dustin was terrific, once again.
"He had a number of score involvements and gave off a couple of goals where we'd probably prefer him to have a shot next time, so that's a coffee shout. But I thought he had a great game.
"Shaun is such a terrific competitor. You don't want to allow him to roam free, but it was a good match-up."
