Star forward Jeremy Cameron will miss several weeks after reinjuring his right hamstring in Geelong’s 41-point win over Essendon last Friday.
The 2019 Coleman medallist underwent scans on his right hamstring over the weekend after being subbed out of the game in the second quarter.
Prior, Cameron had kicked three goals but could be seen rubbing his hamstring and grimacing in discomfort.
In a post-match press conference Cats coach Chris Scott admitted Cameron had hamstring tightness pre-match, forcing medicos to make a challenging call.
“Iffy’s probably a good description of how it was pre-game,” Scott said.
“I think, more than people realise, there are really hard decisions that need to be made by the medical staff and he had a bit of tightness there pre-game but they were confident the right decision was made for him to play.
“He got a little bit of a cork up near his glute … his tightness was right down low in the hamstring. He felt that it was tight – no real incident.
“The medical staff [were] confident that he [had not] done a significant injury, but it was just not getting better.
“So in combination with the knock, the tightness, the call from the medical staff up the line to us was that he shouldn’t go on and we approached it exactly the same way as we approached the decision pre-game.
“There wasn’t a split-second hesitation in either situation, either to play him once they declared him fit – and Jeremy obviously has a say in that as well, because he’s the one who feels it – and then when they decided he was done, we moved on in a split second.”
Scott rejected suggestions Cameron had been managed through an injury after his twice-delayed debut for the Cats in round 6.
“We took a long time to bring him back into the AFL team,” he said.
“His hamstring’s been fine. He’s the best player of all time if he’s got a significant injury and was doing what he was doing.”
Scott defended his medical staff for doing a “fantastic job” this year and making “brutally difficult decisions with key players”.
“I’ve got so much faith in their ability and their assessment of these things that, once they’ve made the decision, I just go with it,” he said.
“They’ve got really difficult decisions to make but they’re the experts. They don’t need to defer to a coach who’s got no idea what he’s talking about.
“We just don’t get involved. They make the call, and I don’t mean to put it on them, but it’s a reality of the situation.
“The one criticism I’ll make is, and this goes for our conditioning staff as well, they are probably overworked and under-resourced with the number of players we have and the challenges, but I’ve got so much admiration for them, the hours they put in, the commitment to their job.”
Scans post-match revealed Cameron had suffered his third right hamstring strain this year.
“Unfortunately, this injury will see Jeremy miss several weeks,” Geelong Cats football general manager Simon Lloyd confirmed on Monday.
“Our medical and conditioning teams are working closely with Jeremy on his rehab program.
“It will be a matter of monitoring how he progresses to then determine a timeline on his return to football.”
